Warpath
by The 483
Summary: The world of pokemon has fallen, as the full deadly capabilities of the Pokemon are unleashed.  War has spread across the contents, as bad men do bad things.  Only a few had the strenth to stand up to these opressors.   All Original Characters of Mine.
1. In The Beggining

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**Due to the fact that I am enjoying the nonsense I am making up here, I am now going to go back through and "fix" the errors, so that someone actually reads them. (not applicable to the one whe reviewed chapter …um, whatever the last one was (13?). You are awesome, thank you.) So, as these first, eight I think, chapters are actually written in a Diary, all words and such are verbatim, as written, errors and all. So, thank you, any who give this your time.**

**#1: In the Beginning**

I remember the second fall of Team rocket. Not the first one; that was a ways before my time. I know the history of it taught in school as well as the next bloke, though.

The Hero, Red, while on a quest to become the number one trainer in the entire world, he crossed paths with team rocket, who tried to steal his Pokémon. Their organization was big, headed by the Viridian City gym leader, but it fell to this one boy and his delusions of grandeur. He trounced the Elite four of the time, and became champion… then ran away to a cave and challenged only the strongest trainers. Some victory.

Like a tumor thought to be in remission, Team Rocket rose again, but it was not really anything, and fizzled out pretty quickly.

I was around for the battle between Team Aqua and Team Magma. One group of loonies wanted to expand the sea over the land, and the other wanted the land to overtake the sea. How do these idiots manage to attract a following? Another group, called Team Galaxy or some crap, I didn't really hear much about it on the side of the ocean, was doing something with evolution. Then a group called, for some retarded reason, "Team Plasma" tried to get everyone to release their Pokémon. Some people just weren't born with the sense to live.

All of that was before the "Glitch" was discovered. That's when things got bad.

Ok, so you have a Pokeball. Do you know how to use it? Yeah, me too, simplest thing in the world. Now, do you know how it works? Didn't think so. Don't worry, neither do I. But that round marvel is the reason we can live peacefully with Pokémon.

By now, you know that when you beat a wild Pokémon, it isn't fainting, that thing is dead. That's why you can't catch them after they "faint." But, when you do catch it, the pokeball does more than store it. Something happens, like some kind of shroud covering it, and your Pokémon doesn't get really hurt, but take fatigue damage, until it passes out. Long story short, a trip to the Pokémon center later, and your good as new.

Now, the glitch first appeared about two years ago, when a Pokémon was killed during a trainer battle. There had never been a case of that reported in history until now. All because an old pokeball failed. When it was discovered that the "Glitch" was the cause, some people moved to exploit it.

It's not a pretty world anymore. I've seen a lot of bad things go down. I've seen a Pignite heat crash through an entire office building. A Golem roll down a busy road, crushing people under its hard body. I saw a pack of Groovile set loose and slaughter the occupants of a department store.

There are no more costumes or clear alliances, just bad people wanting to rule it all. The worst part is, you never know who is one of them. It could be anyone.

I guess that's what brought me and Lil out here into the middle of the Viridian Forest in the middle of the night. At least everything is clear and defined. From the Caterpee in the underbrush, to the Kecleon in the branches, everything makes sense.

Lil, or rather Lilith, she's been with me from the beginning, my first. I hatched her myself. It was cute the way she would trip, and get her new blade teeth stuck in the ground and cry until I would come and fix it for her. It wasn't as cute at 3 in the morning, but she learned to stop fairly quickly. She liked to be scratched under her little chin, still does. And then when she evolved for the first time, I finally just quit replacing the door frames she would cut as the blades stood straight out from her face like a sharp little handlebar mustache. And about a month after I finally decided I wanted to do something about these assholes ruining the world, she evolved again, into her present wonderful form. She may look frightening to others, but she's the sweetest girl in the world. But some people just can't get past appearances. Their loss, I guess.

Any way, once I decided that I was sick of sitting on my ass, I worked at trying to get a contact that was not one of the people working the army. It took a year, but I finally got one, in the form of a lady who only went by the named Rose. She worked for an organization that wanted to knock off all of those jokers. She gave me a task.

Collect the Viridian and Pewter city gym badges, and then, once you arrive in Cerulean, I will give you further instructions. She had contacted me on my X-receiver, but with only the sound link open. I growled in my most pleasing voice.

"Sa'matter, sweetie, don't I get a look-see at the guise behind that lovely voice?" She hung up, and left me to eke out my way. Viridian Gym was an easy job, and I will say, it's nice they have an have an honest operation now, in regard to their past shady dealings.

Anyway, it was all of that that led to me, sitting here, laying against Lil, (she snores) watching the fire burn low, potentially walking into a den of murderers in the morning. No one's heard much out of Pewter in a while now, but even these terrorists know the value of badge system, so even if they control it now, the test still stands. But me and Lil, and the others, we can take it. We got the scars to prove it. It's funny; I remember the words of this little girl I saved from a crazed Onyx a while back as I drifted to sleep.

"Mister, are you a good guy, like the PokeRangers?" I was caught flat. I was just helping a person in need, because I didn't want to see her crushed to death. I thought about it a lot, and still do. I mean, I kill people, sometimes it's the only cure for the crazy these monsters that call themselves humans have.

"No," I said slowly, "I am not a good guy." I wouldn't say I'm a bad guy, because I don't want to hurt innocent people. But no, I am not a good guy."

**End part 1**

**Note. As this is James' diary, I purposely did not disclose Lilith's species, because it was not necessary for him to need to write it down.**


	2. Bright Eyes

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**Chapter 2, revisited**

**#2: Bright Eyes**

It was two days in, while we were camped near the very heart of the forest that my current problem began to develop. I was propped up against Lil, mostly sleeping, when her soft growling roused me. I lifted my cap of my eyes and looked around. It was morning, just after the sun had come up, and it took me a moment to locate what her problem was with the light all bright. A lone Beedrill was buzzing around in circles above the small clearing we had set up in.

"You woke me for that?" I asked her, smacking her in the face with my hat before sliding down and lying on my back so that she could stretch. She "whuffed" at me, saying that something was up, but I just wanted to go back to sleep so I ignored it.

"Whatever, Lil, just don't piss it off, this close to the heart of the forest, there's probably 6 or 7 hives within a 200 yards. She yawned and stretched, still warily watching the insect. I too watched its erratic circles until I noticed something. It was flying in the exact same circle each pass, and its buzz, rather than being consistent, rose and fell in a repeating pattern discernable even to me.

"Lil, your right, something's up, bring it down." She gave a rumble, and slashed out, the X-Scissor lopping wide swaths of vegetation of the top of one of the trees, bit missing the dodging target. She grunted, not liking her prey avoiding the attack, and shielded her face as a hail of spikes rattled of her thick scales. She seized a large rock and hurled it, catching the unsuspecting bug directly center of mass, leaving it to fall crumpled into the forest beyond.

A fireball flew out of the forest to our front, caught her on the point of the chin, the hot air sucking the breath from her lungs and leaving her coughing. A small Vulpix sat in the crook of a small tree, nostrils still smoking a satisfied look on it's little face. Form directly behind that tree, a Persian strolled confidently up, with a Vigoroth appearing for the bushes to our left the Vulpix.

"Hmm, looks like we're surrounded. Why don't you come out and face us, rather than this malarkey?" I yelled, sounding angry and worried, but completely calm inside. You don't stay alive in this world anymore if you don't take precautions. To my slight surprise, a young woman stepped out behind the Persian.

She was cute rather than pretty, even though her brown eyes were slanted in contempt. She had pale skin, blue shoulder length hair, and a very thin figure, and almost no breasts. It worked on her, though. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit, with the insignia of a private in Irving's Army pinned on her left shoulder. Just a kid playing soldier, she could not have been a day over 21.

"Surrender now, you have lost." He voice was cold, slightly high pitched with an airy undercurrent.

"Surrender what?" I asked trying to match her exact tone. She blinked, pointing to me.

"There is no point in resisting. Vulpix's next shot is aimed at your chest."

"Oh Sweetie," I said in a tone that displayed sorrow for her, "you obviously are new at this. I haven't lost, and _your_ only chance is to surrender." She gave a contemptuous laugh, and, I will admit, that was cute too.

"Ridiculous. You're outmatched, and if you even try and draw a pokeball, your be incinerated." Her confidence had seemed to ebb slightly, as she said the next part hesitantly. "It is not possible for you to win."

"Oh, you poor girl." I said in the same sad tone, and then looked up, locked eyes with her, and shifted to a cold tone. "The only thing that is ridiculous here, is the thought that I would play without a loaded deck." I snapped my fingers and the ground under the Vulpix shivered and rose. A second later, it realized that the tree it was perched in was actually part of Torterra's shell. He shook, and sent the little fox from its branches, and ended its resistance with a stomp.

Lilith was already locked in combat with the Vigoroth, blades slashing and claws clashing. My eyes stayed locked with the girls as her face turned from haughty confidence to a mask of horror as the Vigoroth was not quick enough and caught one of Lil's blade tusks in the stomach and exploded in a spray of bloody fur, and the cat was hurled limply into the brush from the mouth of a giant dirt turtle. She turned to flee.

"Lil! Subdue!" I shouted, and Lilith roared, shaking the air and momentarily paralyzing the running girl. She charged forward, and before the blue haired woman made 8 more steps, she planted her foot on her back and drove her to the dirt. She would have screamed it the air hadn't been knocked out of her by the dragon, as it picked her up by the shoulders and returned her to me. I lazily pulled some light gage cord from my pack, and cut two lengths with a large, serrated knife.

"What do you think the bitch is packing under that garb, Lil?" I asked her as she held the terrified woman in her arms. She growled, and I nodded. "Good call, do it." Lil placed the girl carefully on the ground, before pinning her legs to the ground with one foot. "I wouldn't squirm if I were you." I said to the girl, as I worked some play into the cord. With one move, Lilith bent her neck, and with surgical precision, sliced away at her jumpsuit with her blade tusks until the woman was left in nothing but bra and panties, both black. Lil stepped back and merely watched while scraping her tusks with her claws, cleaning the Vigoroth blood off of them. First thing I noticed as I bound her wrists and ankles was how soft her hands were, and that when not compressed by a jumpsuit, she almost managed to achieve a B cup. I toyed briefly with the idea of stripping her bare while I unpinned the insignia from her suit and placed it in my bag, but I dismissed it. Believe it or not, I still have a little bit of respect for human dignity. And I am still a bit of a soft touch. (Sigh) I'm just too nice, that's what the problem is.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" I figured that condescension would be the easiest way to rile her up. She didn't answer, but kept glancing from me to the not moving figure of the little fox, her eyes wet with both fear and concern. The impression that she was just a girl swept up and in over her head deepened and I let my tone soften. "If you don't tell me, I'll come up with one on my own, and you'll be stuck with it if I let you live." That got her attention, if only getting her to scoot backward in an attempt to get away. Lil to a stepped forward with a low, menacing growl and I turned to her.

"Lil, perimeter, make sure she doesn't have friends nearby. Take Grovyle," I dropped his ball and he bounced out, quivering and ready to fight, "no engagement unless absolutely necessary. Find the Beedrill and put it out of its misery if it's still alive." Lilith growled her displeasure, wanting to eliminate the things that had ruined what looked like a peaceful morning, but moved off at a slower pace than the smaller lizard. I rose from my crouch, and tossed another ball over my shoulder, Gardevoir dancing and trilling happily in the morning sun as I walked slowly over to the small fox. It was, to my surprise, still breathing. I opened my Pokedex, and scanned its vitals, weak but steady, and hit it with a potion, before whispering to Torterra. "If it wakes up, knock it out again, but no fatality. He nodded, and fixed his steady gaze on the immobile creature.

"Luckily for you, Tort was still sleepy when he shook off your little Vulpix, so it's still alive, for now. I can change that with one syllable, and will, if you don't tell me what I want to know. This," I gave a short bow the serene Gardevoir, "is my Gardevoir, and she will give me whatever I want out of your head regardless. I am giving you one chance… I think I'll call you Bright Eyes. One chance, Bright Eyes, to cooperate, and maybe save your life, or else Gardevoir here rifles though your head, pulls out what I want, and pops your head like a Bidoof in a microwave. Your call."

I took off my backpack and set it about four feet in front of her before using it as a seat. Relief had flooded into her eyes at the news that the little fox was still alive, and my guess that it was the only one of the Pokémon that was actually hers seemed correct. She talked, more an incoherent babble of crap than anything else. I listened for maybe three minutes before she paused.

"So, let me see if I have this correct. You got swept up in a bunch of Irving's bullshit, and joined up because it seemed like the happing thing to do, and you were patrolling the forest because…"

"Looking for rebels." She added.

"Because you were looking for rebels, and were expected to kill them." Gardevoir let out a low fluttering noise, which meant that I was right. She had been discreetly reading the girls thoughts, verifying the story as I wove it. "When's your next check in, and how many others on the patrol?"

"One hour, and 7 others more senior then I am." The other info she volunteered gave me an inkling, but I squashed it for the time being, as Lil and Grovyle reentered the clearing. Though incapable of English speech, most Pokémon were at least as intelligent as people, and if one worked at it, they could learn to talk, and be talked to, by their partners. Between Grovyle and Lilith, they said that the immediate area was clear, but an area about a click to the northwest was thick with the stink of humans.

"Alright, good job. Grove, you're on point; were heading south. I want to be at least 6 miles south, maybe 3 west an hour from now, easy going for Torterra only. Want Scyther to help?" The lizard nodded, and I tossed out Scyther. Scyther was a special Pokemon, the results of a lab that was performing elemental experimentation to increase the move base of Pokémon, so that water types could use electric or grass types, things like that. It was now a radioactive crater, but I managed to rescue the Scyther before I crater-ized the place. Blue streaks of skin formed stripes along his back and wings, and he could use Ice Beam without killing himself. Grovyle filled him in with a series of hacking barks, and they took off to blaze a trail.

"Lil, you're on drag, anything, and I mean anything follows us, kill it, and leave a false trail to lose anything following that astray. No more than a mile behind, or tonight you sleep in your pokeball." It was an empty threat, but I like to think she didn't know that. "Gardevoir is on over watch, and Tort will be in the middle." Voir would monitor the point and drag, and relay as necessary, keeping everyone in the loop, and scan for threats. She glided over and rose to the shell of Torterra, and settled in the shade of its small tree. I walked back to the mostly naked girl in the dirt, bent, and hefted her over my shoulder like a sack of laundry.

"Hey, put me down! What the hell are you doing, I told you what you wanted to know!" She squirmed and wiggled, making it even more difficult to keep my hands on the polite regions of her rather shapely body. I threw her up on the dirt patch in front of Voir on Torterra's back, so that she faced forward when lying on her side.

"You did, but you're also a liability. Your two options are as follows. If I let you go, you go running back to those ass fucks and spill your guts, where upon they spill your guts, literally, for spilling them to me. Add it up, that's a lot of guts. Or, to make it easier on myself, I could kill you now, save you from a couple hours of torture, and burn the corpse until it's nothing but powdered carbon. Or, because I am not a spiteful kind a guy, I can take you with us, until I figure out what I want to _do _with you." I put a certain emphasis on the word do, making my falsified intention clear. Truthfully, I found the idea of murdering this poor girl distasteful. I am just plain disgusted with the concept of rape, and anyone I find out to be said type of monster I will end regardless of consequence. I wanted see if she would take the easy way out, of if she had the balls to make a stand. "So, what's it going to be, Bright Eyes?" Her eyes filled with tears, but her voice remained steady. "I… I will come with you."

"Good call." I thought about needling her further, but that just seemed sadistic. I bent again, and lifted the Vulpix by the scruff of its neck, and injected it with another shot of medication. I then climbed up on to Torterra's shell, and placed it in the hollow formed by her bare stomach, before pounding on Torterra's shell, signaling it to go.

(…)

We stopped an hour before dark, about an hour's walk from the exit to the city, and I stopped to set up camp for the night. Bright Eye's disappearance had been noticed, and the patrol frequency had increased in number and size. We were well of the beaten path, the last half mile I had recalled Tort and carried Bright eyes myself, (much to her consternation, I might add,) and moved into the denser underbrush. Her Vulpix was well enough to walk, and via her command, followed along cautiously, knowing that Lil would shred her if she made any odd moves. I set her down at one edge of the clearing, facing inward, as I set about assembling a fire pit and a pallet of soft grasses and leaves. Scyther and Grovyle did another perimeter round, while the Vulpix sniffed around the site curiously, under the constant eye of Lilith, who would growl softly whenever it did anything she didn't like. I had just finished the pallet for bedding, when Lilith grunted, calling my attention. The Vulpix snorted, catching the kindling in the fire pit and starting the fire going. It then sat back and looked up at the dragon, cocking it head to the side and seeing if it's contribution pleased the big creature. I caught her eye and nodded very slightly, and she turned, looked the fox in the eye, and whuffed. The Vulpix purred in pleasure, and danced in a circle before retreating to its master.

"Pity you couldn't be that helpful." I called over my shoulder to the bound girl.

"Untie me and I'll do something." Her tone suggested something unpleasant. I ignored it and pulled out a package of pellet balls, more practical feed for a traveling menagerie. I tossed one to Lilith, and place two more away from the fire for when Scyther and Grovyle returned. Serperior would get the next watch, with Gardevoir relieving him a few hours before dawn. I tossed her food to her, and then, threw one to the Vulpix, who missed catching it, and chased it as it rolled away.

I pulled out a MRE from my pack, and tucked it under my arm before unsheathing a small knife, not my main one, and looked at it, thinking about what I needed to do next. Damned Chinese obligation! Oh well, if I got lucky, maybe she would be stupid and solve my problem herself, but I doubted it. I caught Lilith's eye, and she gave no sign of her thoughts. God, even Female Pokemon loved to make my life difficult. Ugh. Oh well. I turned and advanced casually toward the bound girl, who stared blankly into my eyes, imagining I'd made up my mind about what I was going to do with her. Damn it, that made me mad. I flipped the blade in my hand and as part of the same motion flicked my wrist and slung the knife into the ground 4 inched from the tip of her nose. She yelped and squirmed in surprise, but I move quickly, dropped the food packet by the knife, rolled her onto her front, and went to work. Two minutes later she was sitting up, massaging blood back into her fingers as I untied the rope binding her feet. Damn, that was a knotted mess, and I did not worry, as after 10 hours of being bound, her hands wouldn't have the dexterity to work a push door, much less a thin blade, and Lil would snuff her at the first untoward movement. I didn't simply cut the ropes, because I figured I might need them for later, just in case. After I coiled the ropes, I walked back and placed them in my pack, and then Bright Eyes noticed the food and knife were still in front of her.

"What's this?" She asked, her voice thick with suspicion as her Vulpix continuously tried to burrow its head under her hand no matter where she moved it.

"A man always feed his charges before he eats." I didn't say any more, as Lilith knew what her job was, and I went to go find a tree to water.

(…)

"You know, you're not very good at this whole "taking prisoners" thing." It was after dinner, the air was cool, the fire warm, and the sounds of the forest at night swirled about.

"We all have our quirks." I said dismissively. Bright Eyes was still grousing over the fact that the pallet of grass was her sleeping area. I hand also given her one of my two extra shirts, and my only extra pair of jeans. I had kept her shoes, but she remained barefooted, because, well, who sleeps with their shoes on?

"But you never took back your knife. What if I were to kill you in your sleep?" She asked, as if she were trying to make me believe she would actually do it.

"I don't think you're stupid, so I pretty sure _you've_ worked that one out by now. Besides, everyone should carry a knife. It's the single most useful tool ever created by man." Lil stirred slightly against my back, still sleeping. Serperior was patrolling the forest, and Scyther was up in one of the trees, keeping a watch and Bright Eyes. If she tried anything, he'd have her divided into pieces before she even finished the thought. Scyther was a grizzled old warrior, and his pride in that was plain enough even she could see that.

"But… I… you kept me bound all day, and now you're treating me like a guest! Damn it! I am a threat!" Heh, so that's what she was so bent about.

"Tell me something." I said, smiling beneath my hat, which was pulled down over my eyes as I leaned against Lilith. "How's a girl as soft as you end up as in with those military zealots? Are they that desperate for troops? I know Perish over in Johto has been carrying on about taking the fight to Kanto for a while now." She was so long in answering I thought she had started ignoring me again, and I let my mind drift in search of sleep.

"Have you been to Pewter City lately?" There was something in her voice that made me feel a little sad.

"No, not for more years than I care to admit I've had. I went to the museum once when I was a kid." Another pause, and then a bitter tone.

"That's gone. They bombed it. The bombed most everything. Even the gym has a few chunks missing. The soldiers moved in, and there really just aren't any prospects left there outside the army. And they make it impossible to get out."

"So, you fuck with the lives of innocent people because therw aren't any other ways to pass the time?" I let it fly in a completely neutral tone.

"No." There was loathing in her voice. Maybe there was some hope for this one after all. Plus, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but she _is_ cute. Just saying. "No, I joined to get out, maybe get to Celadon, and then just fail to show up for muster and disappear into the crowd." I grunted.

"So you're overly naïve, but that can be fixed. What the hell were you doing getting the shit kicked out of you in the forest then?"

"The heavy presence of soldiers in Pewter is said to be because Viridian is a nest of rebels."

"Bullshit. Gary and his Pokemon are just strong and dedicated enough to keep those fuckers from taking control."

"Either way, it's enough that they want to keep anyone coming from that side under surveillance."

"So then, you though I was a rebel?"

"Your attacked the Beedrill, so yes."

"Maybe I was just after what I thought was a wild Beedrill."

"No, because you let it hang around for 8 minutes before you acted."

"Well, it was signaling something, and I don't like being watched. Anyway, luckily for you, I am not with the rebellion, so I am not obligated to leave you in an unmarked grave in the forest. So you really have no loyalty to Irving?"

"No. I watched those… bastards come in, raze the town, and dispossess most of the population for no apparent reason besides that they could. One day when they got bored, they blew up a school, during the middle of the day when it was packed with children." Damn, that is pretty bad. Argh, damn it! Looks like really did pick up a stray kitten. I remained quiet, and eventually drifted off to sleep. I woke when it actually got cold, and got to my feet, already stiff; my watch saying it was only one in the morning. I tended to the ebbing fire, building it back up to a respectable output of heat. I opened my pack, pulled out a sweater, and then, almost offhandedly, my thick blanket. I walked over, and looked down at Bright Eyes. Her Vulpix was curled up at the pit of her stomach, breathing eyes wide. It watched me without moving its head, and I mimed what I wanted to do. It closed its eyes, which I took as assent. I spread the cloth over her. After a minute, her features smoothed and her slight shivering stopped, the fox's natural warmth serving to heat the area quickly. I shook my head, wondering how I could still be so soft after the things I'd seen and done, lay on my back near the fire, and tried to pick out some stars through the trees.

**End 2**


	3. Pewter: City of Grey

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#3: Pewter: City of Grey**

We spent the better part of the next day cutting through the ticker foliage, and entered the city through the east side. Bright Eyes wore my hat low, covering her face as we moved toward my destination of the gym. Lilith walked behind us, watching everything.

The city was grey, not just in color, but in attitude. Blown open buildings were the norm, and I did not see a single building undamaged. Troops walked the streets in packs, eyeing Lilith suspiciously, but not accosting us. If this is what a non hostile occupied city looked like, I wonder what they would do to Viridian if they could secure their dominance. I decided to break the moody silence.

"It doesn't matter how many time I see, it always amazes me." Bright Eyes was walking a little ahead and to the right of me, and didn't turn when she spoke to me.

"What, the destruction?"

"No, how good your ass looks in my pants. I mean, damn." She slowed slightly, and I grinned, thinking I'd gotten her.

"You mean you didn't notice it when you had me stripped and bound?" There was no tone of accusation, merely questioning, and I liked her a little more for it. A female who does not take offense at people appreciating their looks is a rare gem indeed.

"That was different," I responded, looking for a street leading into the ghetto of abandoned buildings that tends to formed in places like this. "Then, it would have been rude to notice, but now…" She bent slightly at the waist and sashayed a little bit and I lost my train of thought.

"So you're a gentleman under that hostile exterior? _And_ you like what you see?"

"Don't play with me, girl." I growled, and gave her a poke with my index finger to the right of her spine, making her jump and give a little squeak. I like to think her mood had improved a little. "Turn here." I said, and directed her to a side street to the right, leading in the direction of rising smoke. After another twenty minutes of walking, we arrived in the section of the city that was more heavily damaged than that of the main though fares. Another 10 minutes, assisted by Bright Eyes knowledge of the area found us a building that was mostly intact save for most of the roof was missing. Even the lower floor plumbing functioned. It would be dark in an hour, and I wanted to look at the gym and hit a market to restock. I put a lot of my gear in the basement, and had Lilith help me move a bed and mattress down there after I made sure the door locked from the inside. Bright Eyes sat on the bed, and I sat next to her, but with a decent space between us.

"I'll tell you what, Bright Eyes. I don't know where I am going to go after I finish this gym and get the badge. Honestly, I don't know what to do with you. While you're alive, you're a liability, and to be honest, one I can't afford to have to worry about. So, simplest thing to do would be to kill you and leave your body here, maybe burn the house down for cover. Problem is, I don't like that option, so if you would prefer, I will let you continue to travel with me. I'll let you off when we get out o range of these local fuck heads. I know it's not much, but I still prefer to give you the choice." She was quite for a moment, and seemed to be thinking it over.

"Why is it you don't like the option now? You been threatening to do it for the past 2 days."

"Threats and the reality are two different things. Don't get me wrong, I'll do it if you're going to be more of a problem then I am willing to deal with. Just because I am willing to kill does not me that I like it. In your case, I just really do not like killing girls if it can be at all avoided, especially the cute ones who just get swept up into things." I shrugged my shoulders, telling it as plain as I could.

"You really do try to be a gentleman, don't you? I think I wouldn't mind traveling with you, even if my life wasn't on the line. I'll try not to burden you too much."

"I just try and do what feels right, Ma'am." I tipped my imaginary hat, Bright Eyes still wearing mine, as I rose. "I like that answer Bright Eyes. No offense, but I still cannot trust that you're not just pacifying me so you can spring this joint when I'm not looking, so consider yourself under house arrest." She did not look scandalized, for which I was grateful. After some of the stubborn and whimsical bitches I had had the misfortune of getting involved with, one who could, at least pretend, to look at things practically was refreshing. I tossed out a pokeball, and Scyther popped out, and I briefly told him what to do. He hopped up the stairs and began an inspection of the house he would be guarding. "Scyther will ignore you unless you bother him, try and leave the house, or contact anything outside of the house in any fashion." I looked down at the Vulpix sitting at her feet. "That goes for you too." She looked solemnly up and cocked her head to the side, which I took to mean that she understood, and was just trying to irritate me. I am just too easy.

"Ok, So I am going out to check out what the gym is like, even if it is open, I want everyone to get a good rest before we challenge Brock. I'll also see if I can rustle up some real food." I turned and gestured for Lil to proceed up the stair ahead of me, and waited for her to pass. I turned my head as I started up. "Oh, and it would probably be best not to bother or test Scyther. Unlike myself, he's an old warrior and a natural machine of pure unadulterated violence so intense it's almost an art form, and he's proud of it." With that though in mind, I exited, followed Lilith outside, and headed into the city accompanied by a light pattering of rain.

(…)

It was fully dark by the time my shopping was done, and fully raining now, not quite a downpour, considerably more than a drizzle. Lilith huffed as we closed with the house and I paused to look back at her. She sniffed the air, and then let out a low grumble while she flexed her fingers. She smelled blood.

_Damn it, why the hell did she have to go and do something stupid!_ I thought as I moved forward and pushed open the door. My train of thought derailed as I saw the scene inside. A man lay on the floor in a pool of blood, apparently dead, clutching at a knife sticking out of his throat. Bright Eyes was against the wall where his feet pointed, not moving. I looked around, and Saw Scyther on his side on the far side of the room, body stiff and in a unnatural position that was indicative of paralysis, a 8 foot long Ekans in another pool of blood to his front, head missing.

"Lil, downstairs in my pack, grab a Paralysis Heal and fix up Scyther." She grunted assent and moved to toward the basement, while I bent in to get a closer look at the body when I heard the ragged breathing. I turned, and Bright Eyes still wasn't moving much, even though I could now see her chest heaving in shock. I hurried over.

"Bright Eyes, are you hurt?" It took 6 repetitions before she came out of it enough to be aware of my presence. She looked up at me, eyes glazed in shock, her left eye socket purpling into a mighty black eye. Tear welled and streamed down her face as she started crying, and I did the only thing I could think of, lifting her up and hugging her. She responded in kind, her tears growing into terrified sobs that racked her whole body. Lil returned, hefting the red injector, and didn't pay us any mind as she went about reviving Scyther.

"Shh, it's okay, honey, you're alright, shh. It's okay, I'm here, you're fine, don't worry." I intoned in a low, calm voice while stroking her hair and holding her as she cried into my chest. Poor kid. The first one is never easy. Shit, I remember my first, pissed myself and threw up. And thing is, you never forget. Damn bastard. The fuck did he have to wander in here and do this to her for. I had pieced together what happened. The Ekans had slithered in and caught Scyther with some Paralysis move that didn't set in quickly enough. The man had apparently been looking at them Pokémon, and it looked like Bright Eyes sunk the knife into the side of his neck, causing him to strike out and hit Bright Eyes in the face, knocking her down while she still held the knife, because the hole stated on the side, and the knife was now sticking out of the center.

I simply held her and cooed to her for around fifteen minutes until she had calmed down a bit and was sniffling. Scyther was healed, and was shredding the snake's body into as many small pieces as it could, in its anger of being incapacitated, while Lilith had moved to a window and was watching the rain fall.

"Are you hurt other then where he slugged you?" I asked in the same soothing tone, and I felt her shake her head. She pulled back slightly, and in the dim light I could see her entire front was covered in blood. "Come on," I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, noting that I too was now covered in blood. "Let's go get you cleaned up." I started walking toward the bathroom, and she allowed me to walk her, although her steps were feeble and clunky. "Hey, where's Vulpix?" She mumbled something, and all I caught was something that sounded like basement mixed with hiccups. We walked to the door and I opened it. The little fox shot out barking, and stopped when she saw the state of her master. She whined and jumped up, scratching at Bright Eyes leg, wanting to be picked up.

"Here." I took my arm away from her shoulder, and then drew my large knife and carefully slit the less bloody side of her shirt from the base to the armpit, and the shoulder to the arm, allowing it to be drawn off without getting it in her hair. I tossed it on the floor, and then lifted the fox to her chest, where she wrapped her arms around it and hugged it tight while it licked her face trying to make her feel better.

God, I felt so bad. Seeing this kind of think breaks my heart, and I couldn't even make the bastard that did this pay. And these assholes did this to hundreds every damn day. I decided right fucking then that no matter what happened with this resistance thing, I would put a stop to the bullshit these people were doing, even if I had to kill every Goddamn one of them. I finished walking her to the bathroom, and started the shower, making sure the water heater was working before I lead her in and instructed her to clean up. I left the door open and reentered the area with the body, which Scyther was now reducing to an unrecognizable mass of bone and diced flesh. Lilith had moved a wardrobe in front of the door, and a dressed in front of that. I picked up the new pack I had purchased, and went down into the basement, while Lilith prowled the house, blocking any other means of ingress. I pulled a Corporal insignia of the dead man's uniform and pocketed it.

Luckily, most of the blood that transferred from Bright Eyes clothes to my own hit my shirt, and a quick knick above my waist covered an excuse for what little got on my pants. I stripped of the shirt and tossed it in a corner, and went about emptying out the things I had bought, and filing them where they needed to go. A new pair of pants for me went into my pack, along with more Poke-pellet balls, MREs, and other assorted camping items. I laid out on the bed three shirts, two pairs of female jeans, and a package of 2 dozen socks that I had picked up for Bright Eyes. I had to guess at the sizes, but seeing how my own clothes fit gave me something to work with. I left my one new plain white shirt on the table, not bothering to put it on, and walked back upstairs and knocked on the wall next to the door.

"You alright in there?" I called, and she emerged rather than answering. She was back down to her bra and panties, but her skin glistened with moisture, was free of blood, and her hair was still wet.

"I'm… here." She said, her voice hoarse. The bruising around her eye would be there for a good while, and looked like it hurt quite a bit. I offered my arm and steadied her down the stairs, and let go only after she was seated on the bed. She looked at the clothes and the pack like she didn't understand what they were.

"I picked that up while I was out, figuring if you were going to be traveling with me, you might want a pack of your own. I also got some clothes for you." I said it in the same calm tone I'd been using all along, and she seemed about to cry again.

"Will… Will you lay here with me?"

"Of course, just relax, you're fine. You'll be okay." She sniffed again and nodded as I pulled back the bedding, kicked off my shoes and climbed into the bed, and let her snuggle up however she pleased. The Vulpix took that as an extended invitation, and hopped up onto it as well, sitting on the foot of the bed and watching us with slightly glowing eyes. I asked her what happened, and she told me it happened a lot like I thought it did. She seemed like she was about to break down again, so I told her what happened the first time I had to kill someone. We kept talking, and I even got her to chuckle once, which is when I thought she might just come out of this ok. I was more worried more than I care to admit, as I was actually beginning to like her company, and I've seen people never recover or take their own lives after. Eventually she fell asleep, and shortly after I fell asleep.

(…)

The morning dawned cold, bleak, and still raining. I got up early and carefully, letting Bright Eyes sleep, and after prepping a meal and leaving it to sit, went to work hosing down Scyther before recalling him, while Lil opted to go out to clean herself in the rain. I knew that she just wanted the play in the rain, and that was fine with me. She didn't get many opportunites to indulge in this side of her personality often in our life. I headed down stairs to rouse Bright Eyes, only to find her up, dressed and scratching her sides.

"This shit is itchy." Now, I assume most people would find that insulting. But me, I took it as a sign that she was not only getting comfortable around me, and that she was going to be fine after her trauma.

"Glad you approve. Pack your shit and grab a bite, were leaving in 20 minutes." I thought for a second, and then added, just because I didn't want to seem to gruff…Jesus, have I really slipped this far? "And hey, I'm glad you're alright." She smiled and winced as the skin moved around her bruised eye.

(…)

The inside of the gym was dirt. Like, real dirt with some rocks in it. I am not joking. The floor, of the building, was loose fucking dirt. I don't know, it seemed weird to me.

"Hello, can I help you?" A man's voice called across the gym.

"Um, yeah," I said, pausing, "I was looking for the gym leader to challenge."

"Oh, ok." A man stepped out from behind one of the boulders and approached my party, which consisted of Lil, Bright Eyes, Vulpix, and myself. After eating, Bright Eyes was living up to her name again, and apparently Lilith and Vulpix had become friends, because the little fox had been carried over sheltered in Lilith's arms, protected from the rain, and now rode sitting on top of her head. If I live a thousand years, I will never understand how women work. Although I'm not alone. Lazarus Long lived for more than 4200, and all managed was learning how to live with 'em.

I recognized him from back in my youth when I watched the animated show about Red's adventures on the road to being champion, when Brock had accompanied him for a long time. He was older, and looked tired. But he smiled warmly as he shook my hand, firm and kind. If the stories were true, I wondered why he allowed his city to be occupied.

"Will you both be challenging?"

"No, Sir, just myself."

"Very well." He looked over my shoulder and examined Lilith, her scars plain, and eyes showing calm respect behind her blade tusks. "You don't see many Haxorus on this continent. She's a very beautiful example of the breed."

"Heh, keep talking to her like that and she'll grow horns." I said, and to my mild surprise she gave a low, long grumble from her chest. "Lilith says thank you." He nodded.

"You are very welcome, Lilith." His face shifted from pleasure to mild seriousness. "Is three elimination suitable for you?"

"Suits."

"Excellent. Good luck to you and your Pokémon. May I check to insure that your "Duel" program is activated?"

"Of course." As a gym leader, all battles that took place were simple duels in nature, one on one, set number of overall usable combatants, no trainer interference outside of items and commands, and fatigue damage only. He pulled out his pokegear and scanned my belt, showing him that 11 of the 12 balls on my belt were full, and all were locked in on duel mode.

"Alright, are you ready to begin? Very good." He retreated across the gym. The man was very easy to like, and his polite confidence would have left me at ease for my chances if I had not known him by reputation. As it was, it made me nervous, and I wanted to see what his first would be before I chose mine. He dropped his ball and it spat out a large lump of chiseled stone that proceeded to clomped about, a superb Rhyhorn. His preference for Rock types left me at what felt like a mild advantage, as I had a number of Grass types. I chose Grovyle and tossed his ball into the arena. His superior agility and number of draining attacks made short work of the Rhyhorn, and was followed by a Golem. It came out of its pokeball curled up and spinning, a devastating rollout attack that gained power the longer it kept rolling. He dodged the ever encroaching ball of stone, but all of his attacks glanced off due to its momentum, and he dared not get close enough to attempt a leaf blade.

"Grass knot and energy ball!" I called out, and he barked his assent. He sprung sideways at the Golems next pass, and landed palms to the ground, forcing his seed into the dirt. A patch in front of the rolling Pokémon instantly grew a lawn of thick grass which caused the beast to slip and lose control, sending it crashing into the wall and sprouting its arms, legs, and head. He seconded it with a quick throw of a ball made of pure natural engery, which smacked the Golem square in the chest, but did not seem to damage it.

The Golem rose ponderously to its feet, and looked at the puny lizard that had toppled it. Grovyle stood its ground as the golem reached its right hand to the ground, dug its fingers in the dirt, and sent a magnitude rumbling toward it. Grovyle dodged at the last second, catching a glancing blow that sent him sprawling to the ground. He lay there as the rock monster stomped toward it. When it was a few yard away, Grovyle sprung to its feet, and using its open mouth as a guide, funneled the energy it had been gathering into a full powered solar beam that engulfed the target. As the bright light faded, he rushed forward, arms spread and leaf swords quivering from his wrists, as he systematically brought the remainder of the Golems health to zero, and it fainted.

Suddenly, the green lizards back arched, and it writhed and danced around.

"Oh my God, what's happening?" Bright Eyes whispered to me, sounding worried.

"Just watch." I told her, and watched him myself.

His back continued to stretch, and his twin leaf tails twisted together and began to lengthen. The red coloration on his belly split, dividing into a straight band around the middle, and another in the lower jaw and face. His head expanded, the leaf crest split and faded downward into two points in the back and a pointed beak, giving his head a very triangular shape. His back finished shifting at a 90 degree angle from where it started, leaving him vertical when standing, instead of horizontal. More leaves sprouted along the length of the tail and bushed and the leaves attached to his wrists shriveled up and two leaf shaped growths replaced them. Four yellow sacks swelled up on his back, completing the evolution, and Sceptile stood where Grovyle had a few seconds before, looking regal and wary. He had good reason, for while Brock was known for his rock types, he was famous for what he was going to use next.

I know that pokeballs function in way that seems like magic, but my suspension of disbelief does not entertain the fact that something that big could fit into something that small. This Onix was the largest one I had ever seen, and they run fairly big normally. Sceptile braced, using agility, and then dashed, bouncing up the boulders that comprised the body of the rock snake. At the apex of a mighty leap, he clasped his hands, a massive leaf claymore sprouting from his wrists and he slashed downward, attempting to take it in the neck. The blade connected with a clang, hesitated, and shattered in an explosion of leaves right before Onix's tail slashed downward with an iron tail attack, slapping Sceptile down before finishing him off with a slam.

"What happened, why didn't the leaf blade hurt it?" Bright Eyes said, although the sound the strike made had given it away. I recalled Sceptile, and tossed out Torterra, who was slower, but could take a more solid hit, and had a double type advantage. I explained to Bright Eyes as Torterra did it's best to wear down the Onix for my last Pokemon.

"The Onix has a metal coat on. It's a rare item, but it forms a steel jacket around the pokemon in battle. It's works great on the Onix, because it's so big and strong, the movement penalties from the extra weight don't really effect it, and it blocks off most of the types of damage that hurts rock types, while being weak to types rock type are good against." Torterra fell, and I tossed out my last one.

"Whoa… What's that?" Bright Eyes said as she saw a Pokemon she hadn't seen before.

"You are right to be impressed." I said, admiring my partner's presence as well. "Blaziken, fire blast, brick break, earthquake!" I shouted out. The bird stood erect, it scarlet and gold plumage ruffling as it summoned the fire around its body, flaring up from the wrists to engulf its form. It stood, a pillar of human shaped fire, for only a few seconds, before it struck out, slamming into the creatures steel shod body and engulfing it. As the now liquid metal sloughed from its body, Blaziken deftly moved in, striking it in its exact center rock with a controlled strike that would have shattered it if it was a fight rather than a battle. The Onix bent, as it was expected to, and under its pants like plumage, Blaziken toe talons dug into the dirt as it hunched, exerting it's force and causing the ground under the larger Pokémon to boil and shift, dealing large amounts of damage until if finally succumbed and blacked out, still burning in places. Blaziken retreated three paces, and then gave a curt bow to its fallen adversary before both were recalled.

"Very good match, my friend." Brock said happily, as he walked forward to shake hands again. "I am more than happy to award you with this badge." He handed it to me, and I popped open the case on my pokedex/Pokegear and slotted into its place. Brock saw that I already had the Viridian badge. "Hey, would you three like to stick around and have a cup of coffee? With the soldiers occupying the city, it is rare I get someone not vying for power in." Lilith growled, friendly like, always enjoying it when she was considered people, and that would have settled the matter if I had had any doubts.

"Sure, but those… things out there, in _your_ city, those aren't soldiers. It would be disgraceful to even compare those things to mere thugs." A look of sadness entered his eyes, but he showed us the way to where we could sit and talk anyway.

**End 3**


	4. The Aftermath, a job well botched

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#4: The Aftermath (a job well botched)**

Coffee with Brock was… interesting, to say the least. I learned two things: He was unwilling to fight the occupying forces, although he would not say why, and that they were actively searching for Bright Eyes, not believing her dead like I would have hoped. While he would not fight, he would also never assist the bastards, so Bright Eyes had nothing to fear from him. We said our goodbyes and left, heading to the Pokémon center/Pokemart to heal up and pick up the items I had ordered yesterday.

"Okay, Bright Eyes, here is the deal. Since you are going to be traveling with me, I want you to be an asset rather than a liability. In pursuit of that, I've gotten you a few more things." I opened the box, and started removing items. We had to travel through Mount Moon sometime soon, so some of it, like the foam bedroll, head light, and pair of boots was practical for that. Next I pulled out a package wrapped in a leather roll. Before opening that, I reached into my rear pocket, and pulled out a knife, what I now thought of as Bright Eye's knife, locked in its sheath, and handed it to her, hilt first.

"Do not get me wrong, but I think that yesterday, you escaped serious injury because you got lucky, rather than from any skill on your part." I said as she took the knife. I turned away and opened and unrolled the leather, revealing inside an array of no less than a dozen other blades. Flat, solid metal triangle tipped throwing knives, a smaller version of the serrated blade I carried, and a few others of various sizes and shapes. "I am going to try and teach you how to use these effectively. From this moment forth, if I ever catch you without one on your person, regardless of where you are, I will beat you within an inch of your life, as a reminder of what could have happened had someone else caught you. And believe me, I will be checking constantly. One day I may bust in on you when you're in the shower, and if you aren't prepared to stick me, you better at least have one strapped on somewhere. Do you understand me?" To my great relief, her eyes were hard and she nodded solemnly, taking what I said seriously, rather than getting offended. I was starting to think I might really miss this girl by the time she struck out, hopefully able to defend herself.

"Ok, this is your primary utility knife." I handed her the large serrated blade, and showed her she should clip it to her belt. The original knife I gave her would be her primary slashing knife, so I got her a secondary one as well, and a mixed run of dual purpose, and straight throwing knives that I promised to help her learn to use. I helped her attach the secondary on the strap of her pack, and allowed her secret away the first. After that, I pulled the final item, a reduced pokeball wrapped in Styrofoam, out of the box and handed it to her. "And, I thought you might like another Pokémon, as a kind of reparation for the ones I killed when we first met."

"Oh, those weren't mine. Vulpix is the only one that was mine, the others were assigned. But, thank you, really." She reached out and placed her hand over one of mine, and let it sit after she finished speaking. I pulled away a little abruptly, and she pulled it back with an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah…" Shit, she knocked me out of my groove with that and threw me for a loop. "Uh… yeah. Let's get moving…" Damn it!

I walked outside, and she followed, and we ran smack in the back of a gathered crowd, and even though I was off center, I still read the crowd instantly. It was mostly just town people, with a total of 5 troops, 4 armed with crossbows and watching the crowd, and another who was standing on a box or something, shouting at the crowd.

"The fugitives name is Elizabeth Voi, and is wanted for questioning." Bright Eyes muttered an "oh, shit," under her breath, and pulled my hat further down over her face. So her name was Elizabeth… oh well, she'd be Bright Eyes to me as long as she'd allow it. "This traitorous whore deserted her post, presumably in conjunction with a plan by a renegade faction's intent on sowing discord amongst…" I quit listening at that point, as I had seen red already, and was just barely holding it together as it was.

"Go sit back somewhere." I said through clenched teeth.

"What? Why?"

"Because I am about to do something I might regret. Now _GIT!_" My voice was still low, but I managed to set enough oomph in it to set her scrambling. Lilith heard my tone, and set herself, knowing what was going on, and moved to my side rather than my rear. Oh, she would get the best damn treat I could find after this was over.

"Hey, ass fuck!" I yelled over the heads of those nearest me, who parted as quickly as they could. That much fear in a populace meant these bastards were brutal, and that pissed me off even more. The man talking tapered off, and I continued before he could say another word. "That's right, I'm talking to you, you watered down shit stain." All four of the crossbows leveled at my chest, but Lilith simply glared at the men, sliding one hand along a tusk, as if gauging its keenness. The raised man's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?" His voice was cold, almost reptilian, although I could have just been imagining that, to make things easier.

"I'm the guy who slaughtered that poor young person you fucking ass bags sent out into the forest to die. I am also the guy who's going to give your sorry ass a new hole to breath out of, and then rage fuck your entire organization until it's nothing but a bad taste in the distant memory of this goddamn world!"

I swung up my right arm, the knife leaving it as it hit chest high, flying straight and true and hitting the man in the shoulder, sliding into the socket joint if I aimed correctly. I grabbed and unsheathed my big knife and feigned forward, and like I thought, all four crossbow strings snapped, and hurled their bolts at me. Lilith moved in front of me, shielding my soft, pink skin with her own heavy plate scales. 3 of the bolts bounced harmlessly off oh her thick, hard, yellow scales, but the forth found a bit of grey flesh near the base of her tail. She roared in fury, but I was already up and over her, and rushing the 25 feet to the platform, a quick slash and gout of blood disabled one of the bowmen, then I was up, hand at the speakers throat, and then holding him to the ground, waiting for death to find him through the gaping, ragged hole where his throat used to be. After his final shudder, I withdrew my throwing knife form the shoulder, used it to slice of the Sergeant insignia, and then wiped it clean on the dead man's trousers. I turned back, just in time to see Lilith swing her axe like head low and then up, catching the last fleeing bowman in the lower back, popping him like a water balloon. I switched knife hands, my big to my left and throwing to my right, and in the same movement, loosed the throwing again, thunking it in the wooden pole across the street near where Bright Eyes stood. She gasped, but still looked steady.

"Cut the metal insignia from their shoulders, and then follow me." I turned to one of the civilians who hadn't been able to flee yet, and grabbed the front of his shirt with my least bloody hand. "Where is their headquarters building?" It came out a growl. I was still pissed, but I had my control back, and I was taking this shit down. The terrified man didn't speak, thinking he was going to die, but a voice sounded behind me.

"And what do you think you can do there?" Brock had come to see what was going on, and had witnessed the whole ordeal. He was holding the paper the man had been reading, an execution warrant for Bright Eyes.

"I'm going to do what you refused to, and wipe these fuckers off the face of this town." He looked at me with steady eyes, and I let the poor soul I had grappled free.

"Very well. I think I have stayed inactive long enough. I will help." I cocked an eyebrow in surprise.

"Really, why now?"

"Later, let's go do some damage." I gave him a winning smile as he took off running, and I followed. I threw out three poke balls, and Scyther, Sceptile, and Blaziken all paced me as we moved on our target.

(…)

The building in question was eight stories tall, and from what Brock told me, housed the entire military force of the town, and oh, where they going to pay for that mistake. Brock called on his freshly revived Onix, and was going to have it charge, when I bid him wait.

"Onix is all but invincible to their arrows, right? Ok, can you have him toss a big rock at about the fifth floor, to get their attention, and then have him ready to cover me when the arrows start to fall?" He nodded, and gave the order.

"Blaziken, up and at 'em, breach and clear, Seventh floor." He leapt deftly on top of the rock the Onix was about to hurl. God, I really hoped the seventh floor was the officers quarters, which the blacked out Windows made me suspect. The rock flew with Blaziken riding it, and as it neared impact, he leapt again, clearing the lip of the roof by inches and presumably rolling to his feet moving. The fire escape door flying off the roof a minute later showed that he was inside. People were staring out from the blown out windows in the building from around where the rock was still embedded.

"Attention," I shouted, "your occupation of the city has ended. Those of you who wish to live, throw down all of your weapons and lay face down on the floor, with your hands spread over your head. To show that I am serious…" I put two fingers to my mouth and blew a sharp whistle. Blaziken, out of my sight, launched his overheat. Fire exploded out of every window on the seventh floor, glass flying and building shaking. As they recovered for the sudden attack, bolts began to be shot down from some of the lower floor, and so I snapped my fingers, giving Scyther, Lilith, and Sceptile the go ahead. Lilith slammed into the door, buckling it and knocking it off its hinges, allowing them ingress.

20 minutes later, we had 37 people corralled in a temporary enclosure, and the rest dead. Those who surrendered we mostly just those who were native to the town, and looking for a way to survive, and those who fought to the death were the career guys brought in from other towns. Bright Eyes had procured a hose, and was washing down Sceptile and Scyther, who, strangely enough, made a big production out of it, snapping at the water, and rolling around on the ground, enjoying themselves. Well, we all handled the after effects of a skirmish differently. Me, I was just tired. I still worked carefully though, as I was removing the bolt that got lodged in Lilith's tail, and listening to Brock explaining things.

Apparently, Brock was a member of the resistance, but the resistance was not very active. He had sent word after our battle, and had the meeting place where I was to go and find agent "Rose." He would send word of our liberation of Pewter later, and would now provide an active defense against attempts at re-occupation. I told him to contact Gary if he needed any help, and gave him his information. I slapped a bandage onto Lil, and then asked for directions to the nearest hotel. He smiled and told me as I went and relieved Bright Eyes from hose duty. She stayed and watched as I hosed down Lil. Lil reacted in much the same way as the other two, snapping playfully, rolling around in the water, rubbing her blade tusks on the concrete, and just having more fun than… hell, so much fun that I don't even have an analogy for it. It was cute, real cute.

"You know what?" I asked Bright Eyes.

"No, what?" She replied.

"Now that the army has been tossed out, you don't need to leave the town to be safe. So, I guess this means you're no longer my prisoner. Go ahead and do whatever the hell you want." I turned away, waiting to see her decision, but looking like I didn't care. She was quite for a long minute.

"Then, what are we now?"

"What?"

"If I am not your prisoner, what am I? I turned back and rubbed my chin, noticing I should shave.

"That's a good question. I know last time this happened, I got stabbed a couple of times. I'm not crazy about it, but we could try that if you'd like." She looked mildly surprised.

"You've done this before?"

"Yeah, but that is a really long story." She thought some more, and then looked angry shocked.

"Hey! I get what's going on here! You're just trying to get rid of me so you won't have to teach me what you promised to. Nice try, but no dice. Besides, there isn't anything here for me anyway."

"Okay, then… hmmm, we could be… we could try friends?"

"That seems like an idea." To my surprise she held out her hand, and I smiled and shook it. She did that thing where she held on to long, and I had to pull away again. Shit, what the hell?

(…)

I grabbed a room at the hotel Brock recommended, and they tried to comp it to me until I threatened to shove the money down the man's throat. Bright Eyes got slightly annoyed, but I pay for what I receive. I grabbed a quick shower, and came out in my shorts and a shirt, and flopped face down on the bed.

"Water closet is free." I heard the bathroom door close, but didn't look up. It had been so long since the last time I had had a real pillow, it was like a sensuous delight, all over my face. Heh, out of context, that probably sounded pretty gay. I heard a thump, and looked over on the side of my bed. Lilith was lying on her back squirming across the carpet, enjoying the feel of the coarse fiber on her scales, her legs pedaling in the air. I laughed, and she made a series of contented grunts and sighs as she rubbed her head in arcs across the carpeting. We didn't even have carpet when I used to own a house, and now she never missed an opportunity to avail herself on it whenever we hit a spot with it. She gave an enormous whuffing sigh, and went limp. finding the position she was going to sleep in, her tongue hanging out the side of her open mouth. I wished I could be that contented with anything, ever. I took her idea, and after four attempts, managed to kill the light, and passed out.

Something touched me, and I was instantly awake. It was still dark in the room, and Lilith was still sleeping, which led me to believe that the wrist in my hand belonged to…

"Bright Eyes?"

"Yes." I released her arm, and sighed, sinking back down, settling down from my alert. A minute later I realized there was a warm body pressing up against mine. Her voice was laced with smoke, and for some reason made me very nervous.

"Um… Bright Eyes, what the hell are doing?" I kept my tone neutral to keep Lil snoring, while waiting for a knife in my ribs. I flinched when I felt pressure land on my chest. I calmed when I determined it was her flat hand, but a different worry plagued me. The smell of her freshly washed hair was thick in my nose, and was causing an unbearable pressure in my stomach.

"I just wanted to thank you, for all you've done for me." SHIT! Damn it, damn it damn it. Shit, balls, sh… my train of thought crashed as she folded up against me, and her breath enveloped my throat. Goosebumps crawled across my arms, and other parts of my body reacted. The rational part of my brain was losing blood fast, but it was still putting up a fight, telling my mouth what to say.

"All I did was hog tie you, drag you through a forest, and threaten to kill you every 10 minutes. No thanks necessary, it's what I do." Oh fuck me, she actually purred. DAMN IT!

"That's not it. You possibly saved my life, you liberated my city, and most importantly," she squeezed my chest slightly, "you showed me there are still some good people left in the world." Oh balls. Giant, monster sized super balls this was bad.

"I…" fuck, I quivered, "I am NOT a good person."

"I beg to differ." Her hand began to travel downward, and hormones drowned out the little voice telling me to stop this, and it started telling me I wanted this more than anything I had ever wanted before. It was so very easy to turn my head, so easy to lean down, to bring my hand up to her bare shoulder, so hard to resist. Besides, now that I thought about it, I actually liked this girl. And I defiantly liked what she was about to do with me. The only difference for normal was this was a woman who I would like to see again after. A crack snapped across my mind, and the inner voice roared.

_If you let this happen, you will never be able to trust her affections in the future._ My hand shot down and caught her wrist again, stopping it.

"No." Wow, my voice was hoarse. "No, you don't want to do this." She pulled away quickly, and I knew what was coming. Shit. Regrets already. Everyone reacts differently to the rigors of combat, even when they aren't directly involved, but there are basic reactions that show up often. The was the giddy joy that my old warriors showed, my dead tiredness, and now what Bright Eyes was exhibiting, and about to exhibit. She was horny as all hell, and all of that was shifting into anger. Balls in hell, I should have been wary about this. FUCK!

She gave me the look. Now, this look is unmistakable. Let me just tell you something, until you have received this look from someone you like, as in are attracted to, you have never imagined the depth at which it is possible to hate yourself on. It's the kind that makes your soul hurt a little. It's like after you get it stolen by a succubus, and then for the rest of your life, whenever she's near, the little leftover cobwebs of it throb and hurt, just to remind you. Sure I get it more often than the average Joe, but it still hurts just as bad when it does happen, especially because I actually _like_ Bright Eyes outside of her physical dimensions.

"What the fuck do you mean, I don't want this? Don't you fucking think that, being the one who initiated it, I have a pretty damned good idea of what it is that I want? I mean, what the fuck is your problem? You think you're to fucking good for me? You stuck up prick, fuck you!" Lilith was lying on her stomach now, and was watching Bright Eyes (or Livid Eyes, at the moment) carefully, yet passively. If she showed anything other than verbal aggression, she would move, but this she had seen before, and it did not yet require her to break contact with the sensuous delight of the carpet. I'm going to omit most of the rest of her tirade, because a lot of it was similar to that above, and cut straight to the end.

"You're such a fucking asshole! You know what? Why don't you just go fuck yourself?" She turned and lay down in her own bed facing away from me. I tried to say something, but it was met with a simple "go fuck yourself." After two more attempts were met with the same response, I let my emotion get the better of me, and got pissed myself.

"You know what? That's a good idea, I think I will." I got up, grabbed my pants and pack, gave a terse "Lilith, come." And walked over and open the door. I held it while Lilith made her way through, glaring at me as she passed for making her get up. Just because I was angry didn't mean I wasn't a gentleman and a gentleman always hold the door for a lady. I got a continuous one fingered salute from Bright Eyes, until the door closed, and the light went out under the door before I even turned away. Whatever, stupid bitch. I went down to the counter and after a brief argument with the clerk, paid for another room. I remembered that I had the key to the original, so after letting Lilith burrow into a new room full of carpet, I walked back and shoved it under her door. Sleep had trouble finding me after that, but eventually I managed a fitful rest.

**End 4**


	5. Scallion

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#5: Scallion**

Lil growled as another person skirted us. As her reward for her work yesterday, I stopped in at the butcher shop early and got her the biggest haunch of beef I could find. She didn't like the idea of anyone getting near her prize, and even I ran a risk of a nip if I was discourteous about it. I sipped coffee, from a mug. Ah, all the amenities of home. She grunted with the effort of tearing meat from the bone. Here's trying for strike two, I thought as Lilith growled again, in a higher tone.

"'Bout time. I thought you were going to keep me waiting all day." I kept my voice gruff casual, in what I liked to think of as my normal tone. I knew it was Bright Eyes even though she approached from behind me, because Lilith used her recognition growl, just as a warning that the food was hers.

"You… you never came back." Her voice carried relief rather than bitterness, much to my surprise.

"Nope." I decide not to elaborate, wanting to drop the subject with both our prides intact.

"I thought you'd left me." Damn it, she's not going to leave it alone. I turned and looked at her, and it may have been my imagination, but I thought her eyes were a little red. Maybe it was just my own vanity and hurt feelings.

"What, after you pointed out that I had promised to teach you? Never. Lesson one, a man, or any person of value, always keeps their promises, short of extraordinary circumstances. Since I am a man, and tend to continue thinking of myself as one, I can't very well just up and ditch you, can I?" I added more, but as an afterthought. "Plus I had to get Lil her treat for yesterday."

"I'm s…"

"No." I said, cutting her off as soon as she started. "None of that shit. I realized that I was so tired yesterday from all the rage, that I don't actually remember anything that transpired after Lil covered me and took the arrow. I found out long ago that I am better able to cope with things if I do not know what went on. You said it was alright to be friends, so as my friend, will you help me with this?" She stood and stared down at me for a long couple of minutes.

"You… are a very strange man."

"Indeed. And this strange man is paying for breakfast. Pull up a chair and watch out for my girl." We had a nice leisurely breakfast, and without directly saying it, we hammered out how were we're going to be friends. After two more cups of coffee, we had a basic plan of action. I rose and felt something shift in my rear pocket.

"Oh, that's right! I forgot. Yesterday I forgot to get you the most standard equipment in our field. Here." I pulled out a book like tablet and tossed it down on the table in front of her. "Pokedex and Pokegear."

"Cool, Thanks, Shall we?" And we set off.

(…)

It took use 2 weeks to get from the entrance of Mount Moon to the exit. In that time, Bright Eyes was skilled, if not completely proficient in basic hand to hand, knife based combat, and survival. If I left her anywhere in the world, she would theoretically be able to survive in it unassisted. But, the caves resources were strictly limited, offering nothing more challenging than some low level Geodude, and limited area for which to test her. I had worked out a better area, but I would worry about that later, as her knife throwing was still weaker than I was comfortable with. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get to see a Clefairy, but they had all been hunted to extinction years back. There were still breeders keeping them around, but there were no more left in the wild. We exited the mountain and continued east toward the point where I was directed to find the lair of the Cerulean resistance, about an hour outside of the edge of the city.

Working on Bright Eyes, who was now dirty, bruised, and scratched, but stood proud and confidant, and indecently had never looked sexier, had put me back in line with my own skills, and caused me to be extra cautious as I looked over the site. We eyed it from a stand of trees surrounding a clearing, with a sole bush up against a hill about 400 yards away, supposedly an entrance to their bunker. I didn't like it, too exposed.

"Lil, I want you to stay in the trees. Don't argue, if anything goes bad, I want you to go unnoticed. If something does happen, use your own judgment." I popped out Gardevoir, who might be able to give us a little warning if things were going to go bad, and called Bright Eyes to come with me. Her Vulpix, grown a few inches taller and about 10 pounds heavier, trotted along behind as Gardevoir lead. Half way to the destination, Gardevoir paused, trilling a sharp cry of surprise. She threw up a barrier and light screen just before we were hit with a massive fireball so powerful that some of the heat bled through the dual buffers and knocked us to the ground. On my face, I felt a large thump as something hit the ground, and stood before I had her break the shields. She pushed out and blasted the air outward, extinguishing most of the nearby fire.

"Didn't think I'd be lucky enough to snuff your bastard ass out off existence." Shit, I knew that voice. I looked up, thinking there was no way I could be this unlucky, but the knee length ruby hair, chiseled features, and glossy leather pants matched my memory to a tee. I sighed and tried to seem put out. Fuck, this was bad.

"Captain Scallion, it's been too long." There was a harsh crack, and my face exploded. Holy balls, that fucking hurt. The blow knocked me flat, pain so intense I thought my eye had burst. I found out what happened later. She had a bullwhip, and had struck the area about two inches beneath the eye and sheared away the skin, leaving blood dripping in a wide swath.

"I told you not to call me that." He voice was chipper, rather than the ice I had hoped for before I quit caring because my fucking face was on fire! "You need to learn to read, because these pips clearly say Major."

"Sorry,*cough* sorry, _Major_ Scallion…"_*CRACK*_ a matching track stitched my other eye, but this time I dropped a pokeball behind me as I fell, that she couldn't see. She made a disappointed clucking noise.

"And here I thought you could handle this with a tiny shred of dignity."

"Then that just goes to show that you really never did know me. I thought they would have at the least booted your ass after you let me blow up your lab. But I guess it's a good thing that Irving doesn't grade based on performance, eh?" Bright Eyes helped me back to my feet, scared but not showing it. Either she had confidence in me, or she was just crazy. God, I realized if we lived through this, I would ask her to dinner. Shit. This really is bad.

"Oh, no. You actually did me a favor, took out a few brass, earned me a commendation, and let me get the delightful job of erasing you. I see you picked up a new little twist, but what the hell did you do with that dependant little Fraxure that followed you around everywhere?" She ignored whatever quip she thought I was going to make, and turned to Bright Eyes, still holding me, and covering my knife hand, poised to spring out. "Not that it matters anymore, but I hope you didn't fancy him, little one, because as I found out, he could never love anything like he loved that little beast. If given the chance, he'll betray you the minute he gets the chance at what he wants, or if that damn thing told him to. What the hell are you smiling about?" She looked back at me. Her tone had been bitter when talking about Lil, and that please me.

"You know, you aren't the only survivor from the labs. See if you remember him." I pushed my heel back, and triggered the dropped ball, and Scyther, popped out, caught the scent of his past torturer, and sprung over my head, crazy with rage, snarling and drooling.

OH SHIT!" She said, cracking the whip again, though Scyther didn't seem to notice it in his attempt to slice her in two. She dodged back, dropping her own Pokeballs, Flareon and Swinub popping out. The Charizard aim a flamethrower at the distracted insect, waiting for a clear shot, when Lil hit him in a dash tackle, slashing and clawing, distracting the bigger dragon's attention. The Flareon pounced, Scyther, knocking him back, and forcing him to deal with it. I didn't have time to call on more, as I was sprinting after Scallion, knife drawn and closing fast, Leaving Vulpix to engage the Swinub, and Bright Eyes to watch over the exhausted Gardevoir. She dropped the whip as she dodged my first swipe, and drew her own short sword, so I stayed in close, not giving her the chance to use her reach advantage.

The Flareon lit itself, and then loosed a swirly whirlwind of fire after Scyther, who used agility and dashed about, pursued by the fire spin. Snow surrounded the battling Vulpix and Swinub as the furry pig attempted to hit the much quicker fox, who was still not strong enough to do much more than keep it from turning its super effective moves on the others. Lil was still managing to stay in close to the larger Charizard, but it was starting to get the better of the engagement. I rushed in after a failed swipe from Scallion, grabbing her around the stomach, and driving her to the ground with a force that should have winded her. Instead I caught her fist to the side of my head, rolling me of from on top of her, and dazing me slightly as Scyther ran past, still chased by the murderous attack. Scallion hopped up with the grace of a cat and kicked me in the chest and stomach, sharp boot tip doing quite a bit of damage. After she tired of that, she lifted my knife from where I had dropped it, and prepared to end me. I was in too much pain to care at the moment, and was unable to halt her. She stopped when a knife hit her in the chest, hilt first, thrown by Bright Eyes.

"Bad move, girly." She snarled, picked up the fresh knife, twisted it smoothly in her had, and cocked her arm back.

"No!" I croaked, reaching out and grabbing her ankle, pulling her off balance. I was too late. The knife flew, and Bright Eyes fell. She kicked away my hand and gave me another blow to the gut. Scyther dashed by the other direction, the fire spin in hot pursuit. He jinked, and then leapt over the Swinub. The pursuing flames, to close to change direction, engulfed the hog and roasted it, dissipating as its energy funneled into the ice type. The Vulpix received a lot of experience for the kill, her bones lengthening, fur darkening, and features maturing. It gave a triumphant keeling call.

Lil lost a step of ground, and that gave the Charizard a chance to bring its knee up once, twice, three times into her mid section while it held her shoulders. While she tried to catch her breath, it lifted her bodily in the air over its head, roaring in fury. It then slammed her down hard to the ground on her back, where she lay without moving. Liquid fire began to leak from its jaws as it prepared to burn her. Vulpix launched a Quick Attack that smacked it in the face, and it instead unleashed the full force of its Flamethrower on her instead.

Even though fire types were resistant to fire damage, there was no way it could survive a tide of fire that strong. To all our surprise I'm sure, the fox not only survived, but absorbed all of the fire hurled upon it. Its eyes glowed with fire and it funneled it back at its attacker, not doing much damage, but staggering it under the sheer force of the magnified torrent. As Scyther renewed his assault on Flareon, and Charizard struggled to resist the flames engulfing it, I reached back and managed to activate Blaziken before Scallion could notice.

She bounced back as his wrist lit up and he took a swipe at her. He then popped up, landing one leg on the distracted Flareon, closing its talons around the creatures midsection before flipping backward, and throwing the animal at unimaginable speed at the Charizard. The impact of the dog on the dragon knocked it to the ground, and the flarion bounced away and landed in a heap. I loosed another pokeball from my belt with the arm I could still move, and Jolteon added her strength to the field, and Scallion didn't like the odds any longer. She recalled Flareon, and leapt onto Charizard's back as Blaziken, Jolteon, and Vulpix moved in. She shouted something but I faded out a little, and didn't catch it. Probably something to the effect of that she would be back, but I was in no condition to do anything more than pant into the scorched dirt.

(…)

We were a bedraggled procession as we approached the sole bush on the face of the hill. My left arm was wrapped in an improvised sling, dislocated at the shoulder and snapped back in, but still completely stiff and useless. I counted at least two fractured ribs, and several deep bruises and lacerations from the kicking, and the two strips under my eyes that still bled now and then. Lilith had several slashes and bite marks, and some heavy trauma to her abdomen. Scyther was scuffed, but unharmed, as were Jolteon and Blaziken and Vulpix. Bright Eyes had not, as I feared, been killed, but had been hit in the shoulder, and wore another improvised dressing. Thank god Scallion hadn't used her own knife, as I knew from experience that she liked to coat each of hers with a different poison. She had some medical training she had not told me about, and so I let her patch up Lil, binding her ribs and pasting her cuts. Blaziken walked with us, because if anything did attack, Lil was in no condition for a fight. I signaled on my Pokegear, and waited, like Brock had instructed.

"Bright Eyes." I coughed up a little blood.

"Yeah?" She looked concerned, and I swore at myself.

"After this, I'm going to take you to dinner." She shook her head and smiled.

"With the shit you put me through, what makes you think I will let you?"

"Because I know how to show you a good time." I gave her my best shit eating grin, and my eyes started bleeding again. She sighed.

"You're and idiot." Any further discussion was chopped off as something creaked, and a door opened behind the bush. I moved in front of Bright Eyes instinctively, but before me stretched an empty corridor of rough dirt with another door at its terminus. I arranged us, me first, Blaziken, Bright Eyes, Lilith, and Vulpix walking drag. The door shut behind us, and the one ahead opened, leading into a circular chamber. We entered, fanned out, Blaziken to my left, Lil to my right, and Bright Eyes behind and blocked from view. A door across from us opened, and a woman in tight black jeans and a tight white shirt walked in. She had a black band around her left bicep and a green bandana holding her neck length straight orange hair out of her face. She had a spattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her hazel eyes widened when she saw me.

"What the hell happened to you?" That should have been my first indication that something was wrong.

"The past caught up to me. Who are you?"

"Agent Rose. Are your eyes bleeding?"

"Yes, sorry, it's a defense mechanism. Whenever I am confronted by an attractive red head, I get so intimidated that I bleed from the eyes so that OW!" Bright Eyes smacked me in the back of the head.

"Don't be an asshole."

"Sorry dear." I looked back to Rose. "You see what I have to put up with? I'm henpecked." The look on her face gave her away as she realized Bright Eyes was there. I was looking for it, so I saw it, and moved, wishing that my left hand was working. Either way, I had my knife at her throat, and hers was stuck in the floor. I had to have Blaziken hold her, and was about to tackle the door when a broad man appeared.

"You were supposed to come alone." The next half an hour was a confusion of yelling, threats, and my face bleeding. Stingy bastards couldn't spare a bandage. I learned, amidst it all that this group of people calling themselves a resistance was just a bundle of paper shufflers who accomplished nothing. After we got out, more because I threatened to have Blaziken level the place if they tried to interfere than anything else, we decide to move quickly for Cerulean, because I wanted to get the badge now, and we didn't know how long until Scallion would be able to mount an offensive.

(…)

We were about half way to our destination, when I decided that we were being followed. It was mainly because the same Pidgey had flown over head 9 times since we started. So I ordered Bright Eyes to continue the march, stowed Serperior in a tree off the road, crawled into some brush, and waited. She appeared about 10 minutes later, and wound up in much the same predicament she had at our first meeting, save that she was now face down in the dirt, and my knife was at the back of her neck.

"Why the hell are you following me?" Damn it, my face was bleeding again.

"I want to join you."

"So you want me to plant you as a mole in my group?" I may be stupid, but I am always so when with women.

"No! What you said is true. In the year I have been part of that group, nothing has happened. We have done nothing to fight the troops destroying this continent."

"Oh, honey, it is so much worse than that. You see, there are two things that prove conclusively that not only does the army know where you are, but that you're actually helping them."

"No, that's bullshit!" She either believed that, or was a good actor.

"I was ambushed by a very strong, very bitchy woman just outside your door. That den of chair warmers wasn't cleared out ages ago. They army don't just know you're there, they are getting info from you, probably rigged the whole deal themselves lure in civic mind individuals, like myself."

"But that… can't… oh…god." Shit, I don't think she's acting. That chocking noise is hard to fake.

"It gets worse, sweetie. You were my only contact in the group, and that ambush was pretty much tailor made for me. In my experience, two and two usually equal four." Good girl, she pieced it together.

"No! No! My God, I swear on my life, I didn't… I wouldn't…"

"I hate to point it out, hon, but your life isn't worth much bargaining right now." Oh, balls, no she was crying. Christ. Now I can't do it. I'll have to bring her to Bright Eyes and let her decide what happens next, I always welch when they cry. I had Serperior hold Rose while I contacted Bright Eyes and had them trek back. They weren't far out, having stopped just out of sight. I had gone form strong and independent to needing constant babysitting. I outlined the situation, while Serperior and Blaziken watched the wide eyed and fearful prisoner.

"I think she's telling the truth. What about you?"

"Oh, yes, certianly. But it's your group, so it's your call. She's got my vote; I think it'll be nice to have another gal around. You're always so crude."

"Alright then." I held out a hand and helped Rose to her feet. "Welcome, Rose. This is Bright Eyes and Lilith."

"Whoa, now. That's not quite what I mean." Bright Eyes said. "If she wants in, she should have to do it like I did."

"What do you mean?" I should have grasped it, but I was tired, sore, and sick of bleeding from the face.

"You've already forgotten what happened when you picked me up in the forest?"

"Oh, god, you're still on about that? The circumstances are completely different. Although, you did both try and kill me when we first met."

"Doesn't matter. If she wants in, I want her to go thought the ordeal, to make sure she's committed, not to our cause, not to some odd definition of resistance, but to us." I blinked at her, stupid being my best look.

"Bright Eyes, what the hell are you going on about?"

"Think about it a minute. Why does Lilith fight? She doesn't care about the people or any other bullshit. For that matter, why do I fight?" She stopped, her eyes narrowed, and she looked me in the eye. "Why is it you fight?" And here we go, you always know that the moment is coming, but you never know when. She had realized that she knew nothing about me, and she wanted that to change. Well, you get a girl attacked by your baggage, and she's going to go for the moment of truth.

"I want a world that I can raise kids in, where they don't have to fear this kind of shit." I had my own eyes narrowed. This was where it would start. Next she would badger me about my past until she knew about Scallion and my previous job. Balls. Balls. Balls. She looked surprised, her eyes widening. She then smiled.

"Thank you for not lying to me. Lil, she fights for you. Me, I think I fight… because you showed me it was necessary." I tried to interject, but she cut me off. "That will do until I figure out why I know it is necessary." She turned her attention to Rose, who was wide eyed, almost awed. "And you,… _woman_," She said it like she found it distaste full, "why do you want to fight?" Rose thought about it for a long time.

"I don't know."

"Very good." She rubbed her hands together expectantly. I sighed.

"Bright Eyes, there is a streak of sadism in you I think I like. But I won't let her leap in without knowing what it entails. She wants to strip you, hog tie you, and torture you a little."

"As a team building exercise, of course." Bright Eyes slugged me my bad arm. Rose blinked several times.

"Are you people crazy?"

"Just a little." I made a measurement with my fingers. She swallowed, and then settled with a look of determination.

"I want to help, even if I have endure such things." Bright Eyes smiled a shark like grin.

"Oh, honey, when I get done with you," she flowed up and against Rose, her face right up in hers, "you'll realize that "such things" are the easy part." It took her less than a minute to get her stripped and bound. She loaded her on Torterra, and we continued toward the city. She let me thread my rm across her shoulders as we walked.

"Isn't this a little extreme, Bright Eyes?"

"No." We were talking in whispers. "We work now, because Lilith, me, and you, before anything else, we fight for _you_. There needs to be no question in her mind that, no matter what else she fights for, foremost, it need be for you." I sighed. Women are crazy, plain and simple. But, like the good Doctor Harshaw said, "when a gal is gonna, she's gonna, and all we can do is relax and cooperate with the inevitable." I mangled the quote, and he was talking about a much more primitive impulse, but the logic fits. I gave her a squeeze.

"You know something, I'm really going to miss you when you bail, Bright Eyes." She sounded surprised and offended.

"What? You're such a dumbass! I'm not leaving you; I'm surprised Lil managed to keep you alive as long as she did. I wouldn't wish you upon anyone else. Besides, we have a war to fight. I'm not going anywhere." I smiled and squeezed her again."

"Good to hear, truth be told, I was starting to wonder what I would be able to do without you." My tone was as light as my heartfelt. We'd picked up another, and I was beginning to think in broader terms about what to do about these people who were killing this country. Either way, the world is a lot easier thing to face when it's more than just you and your best girl staring it down.

**End 5**


	6. Meridia

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#6: Meridia**

Cerulean gym didn't stand a chance. Whatever Misty threw in the water, Sharpedo took down. I got the badge easy, and she told me how working in conjunction with Brock and Gary, they were forming a united front to drive out the invaders, and provide refuge for whoever was needing it. We moved south, as Scallion would be looking for us now. Bright Eyes helped free the Daycare people from a pair extorting them to try and breed an army, and was rewarded with an egg. Lucky bitch, it hatched into a Lapras, and she switched into total baby mode and we didn't get anything done for a week. Don't get me wrong, it was adorable, and not that this means anything…really, but it seems like she fits into a mother role very naturally. What I told her about my goals was true, but that in no way means I am ready now, or that I am looking at her and assessing her as a candidate.

Anyway, she did let me take her to diner before we got the hell out of Cerulean, just a nice, casual affair, where I made an ass out of myself for an hour, and she pretended to enjoy herself. She is good like that and that makes it even harder to want her to like me, because she is good, and I am…well, not. She tells me I am, and I patiently deny it. All of that aside, we're still just friends, but I think she might be willing to try more later.

Rose took to this lifestyle much easier than Bright Eyes. She slipped in like she was made for it. In the two months between when we left Cerulean and arrived in Fuchsia, she outpaced Bright Eyes in skill, and was actually probably better than I am, although she did her best not to be. Stupid girl, you shouldn't hide your natural talents to avoid showing up your teacher. They say we find it a matter of pride to have it happen, which is bullshit if you don't handle it in a way to cushion our egos. Oh well, she'll get over it.

I figured out the final test before we get serious about figuring out our what we are going to do. I'm setting them lose in what was once the safari zone. Now it's just the biggest variety of terrain and Pokemon in one place in the continent. The game park rules broke down, and now it was just a big open space where only those who were brave and stupid went. Herds of wild monsters of all shapes and sizes roamed unchecked through hundreds of acres of wild forest, savannah grass, meandering rivers, vast wetlands, dry deserts, and still lakes.

I would set them off, and tell them that after three days, I would begin to hunt them. (I wouldn't actually be coming until a week later. This would be my vacation, a chance to get away from them for a while. If they survived, they would be ready to take on these bastards.

(…)

It was the morning after our arrival in Fuchsia, and we stood inside the fences and in the lobby of the broken open building that had served as the Safari Lodge.

"In no less than three days, I'm going to head out and hunt you down. If you're still alive by then, you pass. If you manage to prevent capture, well, I don't know, you'll get a mark of respect or some other bullshit honorary degree. Any questions?" I had already given them the warnings. Carvanha in the rivers, Tauros tend to stampede, don't attack anything that travels in packs, and avoid all people.

"Yeah," Bright Eyes said, sounding skittish, which put me on edge. She had been the model of confidence as of late, and I learned to trust it. She surprised me by grabbing my ears, pulling my head down, and giving me a quick, warm kiss. She leaned back, looking satisfied. I cleared my throat, and tried to look anything other than as pleased as I was.

"Good question." I noticed Rose grinning under her green bandana. "And what the hell are you grinning about, woman?"

"I told her that you were they type of guy that we needed to spell it out for." She moved in and bussed me a good one too. I stood for a minute, my eyebrow arched in question. They did nothing, and I noticed Lil looking away, not catching my eye. She was in on whatever this was.

"O…kay… who gets to tell me what the hell this is?" Shit, they have their predatory smiles on.

"We have been discussing this a lot, lately." Bright Eyes took the lead. "We have, in these last couple of weeks, come to a realization." Her smile didn't slip, and I began to sweat. Rose took over.

"We really like each other." I cut in.

"That explains why you have been dossing together." Blank face by Bright Eyes, point for me. "It is no concern or business of mine if you gals lez." I played it straight face, not wanting to offend, but still be allowed to use the most offensive terminology I could. Rose continued.

"Oh, we're not strictly Lez, we just work well together. No, we discussed this, and we both agree that we have a vested interest in _you._" Holy shit face by me, point for them. "Oh, I know, it doesn't make sense to me either, but the heart wants what it wants. Now, I am more than willing to step aside for Liz. She got here first, so she has seniority, even though I'm three years older. There would of course be no jealousy for either party regardless of who you chose." Bright Eyes, smile back in place, picked up.

"But I said, seeing as we're both compatible with each other, that we shouldn't make you choose, as you won't for the silly and baseless fear of hurting one of us. We could share." She stepped back and I held my stony face. I noticed, save the little field med kit Bright Eyes wore, they shared the same visible gear down to the shoes. I heartily approved, not just because I liked the way they looked, but their simple wife beater, jeans, no projectile weapons, and the belt knives were all they could need for where they were and what I had taught them. They interpreted the jagged silence so good they might have read my mind.

"Don't try and put us off with some bullshit excuse. If you interested, take us both or pick one, and if not, tell us now, don't let us keep trying to grasp at straws that aren't there.

"I would never do something that crude." I little bit of ice crept into my voice at the accusation.

"Really?" Rose said, her skepticism plain. I took on a business like tone, like a frustrated lawyer reading the list of charges.

"Lil, have I ever let someone believe that I was interested in them when I was not?" She huffed, a clear negative. "Now, you may believe that I would lie about this, but would Lilith?" Ha, point to me. Now for the smoke and mirrors. "Now, come closer." They walked up, heads down, one bad move and they thought there ploy was ruined. I wrapped an arms tightly around their shoulders. "That," my tone switched to that of restrained joviality, "was the most complicated way of asking someone if they were game for a troy that I have ever come across. There is a certain elegance in simplicity when discussing such matters, girls. Do not get me wrong, I am flattered, more then I have been since Scallion tried to kill me last, rather than assign it to someone else. You really wish me to believe you're serious about this, then?" Bright Eyes muffled voice emerged from the right.

"Dead serious. We are not proposing a… whatever you said. We mean simply that we both want to be with you, and we aren't picky about how. As it said in those books of yours, "Love is meant to be shared.""

"Nice try, girls, but that dog won't hunt. You're still going out there, and I'm still staying in the hotel without you." They tried to squirm away, and voice their intent, but I held them and continued. "I cannot make any such judgment in haste, girls. I need to take out my soul and look at it, because I will NOT commit to anything like this without looking at everything that can go wrong. It's not fair to me, and more importantly, it's not fair to you. So, you are going to go out there, you're going to come back, and you're going to make me proud! Damn it now, stop crying, before you start me on it." The hugged me, each separately and together, and then broke back wiping their eyes.

"Speak for yourself, your crying harder than we are."

"You're crazy, it's raining."

I mopped my own face with a rag, reached on my belt, and tossed out a ball. Scyther popped out and jittered in the grass for a second. The he started issuing a low hissing, and clicked his wing casings in a continuous chattering.

"Watch for recall, and have fun." He was gone like a shot, leaving swaying grass in his wake.

"What the hell is this, then? You're going to have him track us for you." Rose spouted off indignantly.

"Don't be stupid. My pokemon can all take care of themselves, and they deserve a break too, so I'm setting them all out, so they can have their own vacation." I told them all what I told Scyther as they left.

"What was he doing?" Bright Eyes asked.

"This is the only place in the world where Scyther's hereditary enemies are found. He can smell them, and he needs, on a biological level, needs to kill the Pinsir."

Sceptile, Serperior and Torterra all walked off toward the forest off to the left, chattering happily as sought an area that suited them. Sandslash promptly dug a hole and vanished. Altaria and Gardevoir floated off together. I threw Sharpedo into the stream where it came near the building. The water would run red tonight, but he knew Bright Eyes and Rose, so the he would get the Carvanha to leave them alone. Lastly, I threw out Jolteon and Houndoom. Jolt growled at the rival dog as he sprayed the grass around him, her hair bristling. Houndoom yawned lazily when she hit him in the side with a tackle, bowling him over and sending her spiraling into the grass where she nuzzled around in a circle and nipped playfully the black dog. They were mates, and they didn't get to just be around and have fun with each other enough. Blaziken looked over them coolly, before loping off to wherever he pleased.

"Lil, you coming or going?" She snorted indignantly. "Oh, sorry, I forgot, I'm going to have carpet. Ok then, girls, that is your cue. Scoot." I slapped them each on the bottoms and got on middle finger as a reward. They hit the grass and were gone. I'd leave them out there a week, maybe week and a half for that stunt they'd pulled on me. As I watched for them, two things struck me. I was very tired, and I needed a drink. Bad.

(…)

I slept most of the day. Lil went out into the Savannah and showed up slightly before dusk, and opted to stay in the room while I went out. The establishment I found to get smashed out of my mind in was not really a bar so much as a dance club of sorts, but, I didn't mind. I grabbed some tonic, and grabbed a seat. I got to some serious thinking, but chopped that off when the most appealing solution was to just say "fuck it" and bail. Damn it girls, you had to come at me united. It's not that I wasn't interested, and I some of the happiest couples I even knew had a plural. Thing is, I just don't know if I am strong enough to handle it.

I caught something out of the corner of my eye, looked close, and my heart hitched in my chest. No way. It is. I would recognize that mane of long, shiny green hair anywhere. My God. I pounded back the rest of my drink, and walked up behind the girl at the bar.

"You've quite the nerve to approach me now." She said without turning around.

"Hello, Mare." She turned and leaned backward, her arms resting on the bar behind her. She was in a dark purple dress that perfectly matched the shade of her eyes, and complimented her hair. She was a vision of radiant beauty, looking older than I remembered, but better for the years. She seemed to project an almost tangible aura of serenity that made you feel better just for being near her.

"3 years and that's all you have to say?"

"Of course not, but the only thing I can in polite company. D'you have that dress sprayed on?" She arched an elegant eyebrow.

"Thank you." She replied, taking it as a complement.

"No, thank _you_." I gave her a appreciative leer, and she smiled kindly. "Come on, let's dance." I grabbed her calloused but graceful hand before she could protest, and pulled her into movement.

Three active dances later, the kind of which allowed us to catch up without words, the music slowed. She was still as good, if not better then back at the academy. She had always been my dance partner on Thursday nights at the social center. She moved in close, her head resting on my shoulder in more of a hug than dance position. I had my hands wrapped around her waist and matched her swaying, and just basked in her presence. I know I sound reverent, but I am. This woman, she had the most good I had ever encountered in a person, and truth be told, I love her, unconditionally. Hell, even Lil loved her, and if that doesn't tell you all you need to know, then there is no pleasing you.

"Where have you been?" She whispered, right in my ear, making the hair on my neck bristle.

"Around, keeping up the good fight." I thought I caught a sniffle, but knew better. Not form Mare.

"But why did you leave?" There was clearly something in her voice now, and whatever makes her sad is something I rectify. This was the question that made it to hard for me to face her three years ago. I sighed deeply. Couldn't hurt now.

"I was out on patrol when I came across one of Irving's people hassling a family out on holiday. Husband, wife, three kids, the works. I showed up and told him to surrender, so he offed the dad, boom. He got the mom before Lil could clip him. He was down, laughing at me, taunting me, because he knew we were not allowed to kill. He crawled over and offed the kids, one by one. I was so horrified I just sort of snapped. I walked to him, he continued to laugh, actually spat on me. I just… started stabbing. He got me in the shoulder, but I didn't notice. I returned to head quarters and resigned, that night, after I filled my report. I realized I couldn't just sit with our tight little rules preventing us from helping the people we were sworn to protect." She let me rock with her slowly for a few minutes in silence. Then she shuddered.

"But why didn't you say goodbye?" I sighed again.

"I am sorry. I just couldn't face you after that. Not in person." I could hear… shit were those tears? She pulled back, looked up at me with tears in her eyes and shouted.

"You unbelievable bastard!"

***SLAP***

She slapped me so hard across the face my vision blurred and I went reeling. She held on and then pulled me in, hugging me tightly. She muttered from the front of my clothes.

"You know me better than that. Why in the hell would you think that any of that would matter? I regained myself enough so that I could pat her back with one hand, and stroke her hair with the other.

"Come on, sweetheart, let's sit down and I'll get us drinks." I was about to lead her to a table, because the entire place had all looked over at her justified outburst, when some pissant little punk stepped up to me.

"Is there a problem here?" He had the pompous attitude that seemed to invite a punch in the face, but I let it slide more form not wanting to make a scene for Meridia then to save this little bitch some dental bills.

"Yes, I need to get around you to get to the tables." A tick developed in his temple, and I could tell I pushed just the right button. I found myself wishing that I could have met this douche bag on any other night, to give him something for his blood pressure.

"I don't think that's what the lady needs." Oh, lord, this little prick really wants to pick a fight with me? God, I hate kids.

"Are you serious?" Incredulity. "When the hell did I step into some lame ass movie? Can somebody, like one of you bouncers, come remove this little boy so that I can get the lady to the table, please?" I looked around, and a pair of burly men approached. The little fag shot me a needling look, and I gave him my biggest smile. He would probably try and jump me later, but then it would be his problem. He stalked off.

"Everything alright, miss?" The Bouncers were suspicious of her reaction too, but they at least knew how to handle it. She turned to them, bright smile in place, her makeup not even smeared.

"Oh yes, sorry I caused a scene. This is an old friend of mine, who dropped away without letting me know, and I couldn't let that stand without consequence.

"To her credit, I am pretty good at being an unbelievable bastard." I added helpfully. They glared.

"Really, Gentlemen, it's fine. Besides, even if he wanted to try anything, he would be able to." She reached into… I don't actually know where she pulled it from, now that I think about it, she pulled out a leather fold and showed them her badge. They read that she was a Lieutenant in the PokeRangers and nodded in respect.

"Very good, Ma'am, enjoy the rest of your night." The returned to their stations, and I sat her down before getting drinks.

(…)

"I'm serious, Mare, I gave the officer who relieved me a note telling you I was leaving. Although it's not surprising you never got it, Major Kim always did have a boner for his little rules."

"Oh, Come on, James, Lieutenant Colonel Kim wasn't that bad." I flinched. The words "was" and "Lt. Col." meant he was promoted after death.

"Shit."

"Yeah, he died coving an evacuation. Saved 53 people." Shit. I never was fond of the tightly wound little man, but he died a heros death. I lifted a toast.

"To our fallen brothers." She matched the toast and the solemn mood. "Is it as bad as they say on the news?" She shook her head.

"No, it's worse. We're barely fighting a holding action as it is, and now, it seems their targeting our command structure. We're down to General Howser, General McMahon, and Colonel Thymes."

"Have they petitioned for aid from the other… Oh." Her face told me all I needed to know there. The neighboring country of Johto was not on the friendliest of terms with us. I decided to change the subject.

"On a lighter note, I ran into Violetta a few months back." And have the scars to prove it. She perked slightly.

"Really?" She hadn't seen Scallion in almost as long as it had been since she'd seen me, except that Scallion mattered far more to Meridia than I did.

"Oh, yeah. She's a Major now, and I feel confident that she still hates me." I indicated the scars under my eyes. "She's gotten really good with a whip." This bit of news left an awkward silence. Damn it. Oh, I know. "What brings you to this neck of the woods?" She gave me a tired smile.

"On leave, Colonels orders."

"Nice, how long?" In my head I was already calculating how much time it would be possible to spend with her.

"Subject to recall." Score. Yatzee. Ka-ching.

"Oh, that's great!" I tried not to drool. "Where are you staying?"

"Oh, nowhere special, just the accommodation barracks." I was outraged.

"Bullshit. You're coming to stay with me at the hotel." She started to protest and I chopped her off. "Don't even try it, woman. The only way you could put me out is to make me sleep in that big hotel room alone. C'mon, I'll even carry your kit for you." She still looked hesitant. "Besides, if I let you get away without Lilith getting a chance to see Titan, she'd never forgive me." It was true, that little girl could hold a grudge. I switched to a conspiratorial whisper and leaned in. "If you ask me, I think she has a bit of a crush on him."

She smiled, offered her hand, and I pulled her to her feet before following her out. As the door swung shut I counted it off in my head. 3,2,1…and…

"Hey, asshole!" I caught his hand as it fell, pivoted behind him, swept out his legs and drove him face first to the ground. I then applied just enough pressure to break it. A swift, sidefooted kick to the head broke his nose and knocked him out, and a few more judicial kicks caused painful, but not critical damage. When I looked up, Mare was standing with the pricks two friends, just waiting for me to finish. She had showed them her badge, and it seemed even they knew their pal was a douche bag. I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket, wrote "Learn to give respect where respect is due" on it, and gave it to one of the others.

"Yeah, you're going to want to get him to the hospital. I didn't do any real damage, but he'll want that arm set. Tell him he was lucky he didn't piss me off, and that the next guy he tries this bullshit on might not be as level headed." I turned to Mare, offered my arm. "Shall we, Mare?" She took it and led me to the Ranger's quarters in the town.

(…)

Meridia was sprawled on the couch, just a big t-shirt and her tight bocer style underpants, laughing at the ceiling, making my heart skip. It may seem callous of me, to be enjoying the company of this heavenly lady after I spurned the advances of my charges. But if you think that, you just don't understand, and should probably be ashamed of yourselves. Meridia, her sister Violetta, aka Scallion, and I grew up together. We joined the Ranger training program at 18 together, we received our commissions together, and our Eevee's were all sisters as well. For lack of a better term, she was family, and I love her. Period. In all fact, I was looking forward to showing her off to the girls.

Against her protest, I had forced her to take the bed, while I would camp on the couch. No lady will suffer indignities that I can suffer instead while under my roof. She let Titan out after she made acquaintance with Lil again. The last time they had seen each other, Lil had still been a Fraxure. She released Titan, and Lil's jaw dropped. He had been a Dragonair, but now he was the most impressive Dragonite I had ever seen. I am guessing that Lil thought so to, because they disappeared shortly thereafter to God knew where, Lil behaving like a cowed little girl. Ah, to be young, scaly, and in love. Don't really want to think about it, actually. Ew. Anyway, with me and Mare, it was like nothing had every happened, and there was no three year gap. I sighed happily.

"So I started collecting Badges, wanting to get back into organized fighting again. We were coming through the forest, when I get ambushed by this little blue haired gal, cute as a puppy, wearing the garb of those army butchers. No sense, no plan, just making trouble, not even carrying a knife. So, I stripped her, threw her on the back of Torterra, and continued right along my merry way. Then, after Pewter, I get to the damn place just to find that they're nothing but a bunch of paper shufflers, so I bailed. One followed, got the same treatment. And that is how I picked up two stray kittens, and am here. The damnedest thing is, the poor girls seem to think that they are in love with me. It's ridiculous." I didn't need to feign exasperation.

"That's not all that surprising."

"Yeah, but they came up with this crazy notion that they not only want me, but are willing to take me together. But they have also been sleeping together, so I don't know what to make of that, big picture."

"And…" Shit, she's prompting me to be a hippocrite.

"Yes?" Not going to make an ass of myself by myself, here, she can help.

"And love is meant to be shared. What does the Reverend Doctor Valentine Michael Smith say about it?" I sighed.

"Water shared is water multiplied." God, I love a girl who loves good literature. "It's not just that, I just feel old and cynical, and don't want to limit these girls. I mean, I never thought this kind of thing happens, but if it ever did, I thought I would be happy for the chance. Maybe it is weird because they remind me so much of you and Scallion…er, Violetta, back when we were in training.

"Really? Should I be flattered or offended?" She joked.

"Flattered about that, offended by what I am thinking of you right now. Bright Eyes, she's just so positive and friendly, but she's got this little hint of sadism that you always lacked to give her a little balance. And Rosenthal, she's like Scallion, naturally good at what we do, even though she tries to hide it so she doesn't seem like she's showing off. She's got the drive and talent, but without the raw ambitious lust that Violetta has, though.

"Well, they sound wonderful. When do I get to meet them?"

"About a week. I was going to get them after three days, but after that little stunt they pulled, I going to let them stew for at least a week before I even pretend."

"What do you mean, where are they?"

"Out in the Safari Zone." She sat bolt upright and looked aghast.

"What?"

"Calm down, Mare." I held up my hands to halt her, but lying on my back on the floor, the gesture lost something. "You know if there was any doubt in my mind that they would be an any real danger, I would not have done this. It's not even as bad as the test we had at the end of basic, plus, Blaziken and Scyther and Jolteon are keeping an eye out for problems. I like these girls, and would put them in a position where they could get hurt." She lay back down.

"Alright, sorry."

"Don't worry about it… Hey!" I had an idea. "Feel like going after them; really give them a good show?" She looked over at me, and I had to look away from her eyes before I got lost in them. "I told them the basics of their task, but said I would spice it up it I thought of anything. And one of the best lessons that I could teach would be that anything can happen. I just didn't have a variable situation I could control. What do you say, want to hunt some girls?"

"Are they any good?" She asked, thinking about it.

"Yeah, Rose especially. She's a natural. Makes me think if this was a different time, she might have wound up in the rangers. I taught them most of what we learned, supplemented by what I've learned over the years. Should prove an interesting challenge."

"Hmm… Let me think about it." She was quite for a few minutes, and I started to drift, when she spoke again, her voice quiet and mournful.

"Do you think the Rangers will disband?" Their was a bitter note behind her whisper, the kind that just breaks your heart.

"What do you mean?"

"I was not exaggerating when I said the two Generals and the Colonel were the only officers left. If they buy it, there will be no one left above my rank left. Most of us are on leave now, and that's not a good sign, I think."

"Yeah, but the Rangers won't die while those of us that still represent it are around. Even though I am not among its ranks any longer, I still strive to up hold its traditions, just in a way that's more relevant to today's world."

"I don't know." She was really doubting, something she never did. She must really be worried. And if it worried her this bad, it was enough for me to realize this was a serious concern. "You know that we in the field don't have all of the records on the past of the Rangers, of member data, or training guidelines… or any of the stuff that is the foundation of the organization. Sure, we could muddle through and keep our jobs up, but when the last of us are gone, everything will be gone." She had a point. The Rangers exist to serve the people, all the people, regardless of anything else. It was the rich history that had been preserved throughout the decades that allowed…us… to do that.

Now, I had an idea. Not the, I just got hit in the head with a Longshot Bullet and my head exploded, type, but a knowledge-y type. That sounded awkward. Anyway, I have a lot of ideas when Mare is around, I think mostly because I feel it is my prime purpose in life to do whatever I can to make her happy. Don't judge me. No, Seriously don't. I will cut you.

"What happened to my records when I was. .er… what would you call it?"

"Dismissed. I looked it up, and all that's under your name is the date you were entered, and the date you were released."

"Ok, so if you're worried about the records and such, start piping them to me, and I'll stash 'em. I've been expunged, so anyone looking to wipe us out won't be looking for me." Oh, boy. I watched her fight with the very idea. I was a Ranger to me and to her, but at the same time, I was an outsider. "Look, if you don't want to, don't. But even though I left, I still respect the organization. I bear no ill will to the organization, and think that the records should survive as much as anyone. Your call." She rolled away from me on her side, and I took the opportunity to check out her legs. Marvelous as always. She lay still for so long I thought she had dropped off. I reached up and clicked off the light, grabbing another pillow and settling in.

"Ok, I'll start funneling it to you when I go back." It startled me.

"Ok, cool. Should we call it a night, you can head off to the bedroom."

"We can call it, but I think I'll doss here." And there was the barb. She knew that would not take the bed while she was here, in the off chance she would move from the couch in the night. So I was stuck on the floor tonight, but I didn't mind. "Let me think about your girls for a while, and just help me enjoy my time off."

End 6


	7. Safari

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#7: Safari**

I was sitting up in a tree, picking at… something that was wedged in my teeth. I wasn't doing anything, really, just watching. I had spent the week previous with Mare, doing whatever she wished, and she agreed to the exercise of putting the girls to the test of a real Ranger. She even went out equipped as in training. Sports bra, Shorts, and a single knife. Oh, were the girls going to be surprised.

I had entered the zone a week earlier, and just puttered around, enjoying being back out, like I was a Ranger again. I hadn't found any traces of Bright Eyes or Rosenthal, so I got bored and decided to just wander. Something was bothering me, but I am not quite sure what it was. I think I first noticed it when I saw an out of place Pokemon. The longer I watched the more species I noticed. Just up at my level, I noticed a scattering of Mankey. Not odd of itself, but it was a large troupe, about 20 members, inter mixed with Aipom, and even a pair of Chimchar. What was truly odd, though, was the monster leading it was a Simisage. It was a really old one, too. Out on the field, a pack of Growlithe were dashing through the grass mixed with Vulpix, Poochyena, and Electryke, being lead by my own Houndoom. Jolteon was off with Mare's Vaporeon, and Houndoom wasn't the only one I'd found who had a following. Torterra had a group of things following him, although he seemed less keen on the attention. Even Sharpedo had a school of Carvanha following him around. I saw about a dozen other such groups, and on a hunch, I scanned one with my Pokedex. Half of them had been released from trainers. I checked more, and saw the same. I had never heard that people had started releasing into the Safari zone. I knew that the box system had gone to hell and was not safe to use anymore, but this didn't make sense. I hopped down and moved. It took 3 hours to make it to the fence bordering the dense forest. It was still in good repair, most of the animals not wanting to leave. I continued along the fence, and found a hole. It was bowed inward form the outside. An hour later, I had founds six more like it. I think that the released pokemon have been breaking in to the Safari zone. If so… hmm… this might be worth… got to make some calls. I was on the phone for a long time, hammering out a deal. When I was finished, I owned the Safari zone, and had a crew heading out to reinforce and repair the fence. As I hung up the last call I got a text message.

"Got one." A spot appeared on my town map, about three miles north of my own position. I moved, Mare had got one of them.

(…)

I approached the marked spot to find my two girls tied up, back to back, looking pissed. Well, rose looked pissed, Bright Eyes sat eyes closed, looking serene. I stepped out, and instantly Rose started in.

"It's about goddamn time, you fucking asshole!" Heh, maybe this would help quell them for a while. Bright Eyes just glared at me, but something was off.

"I said if I could figure out anything else, I would throw it at you. Luckily, I just happened to run into an old friend."

"Run into my left ass. You planned this from the go, didn't you?" From the go? Where did she pick that up?

"The major lesson here is that things change, and you have to be prepared to modify your plans on the fly. The unexpected always happens, and it will get you if you're not careful.

"Yeah. You could say that." That is when I caught it. It was in Bright Eyes eyes, a hint of mirth. I was about to dive when she hit me, low and from behind. I moved with the hit, and tried to use her momentum to throw her, but she anticipated this, and next thing I knew, I was lying on my stomach, being looked down on by three girls, all smirking. Mare helped me up. I dusted off my front half assedly.

"Turnabout is fair play, I suppose. Which one of you wenches organized this charade?" None of them answered, so I took a minute to look then all over. Mare looked as fresh as could be, and wasn't even ruffled. Bright Eyes was extremely dirty, and had a few scorch marks. Rose got the worst, however. The back of her shirt was torn open, three long, angry red scratches from shoulder to mid back.

"What the hell are you doing, setting a Ranger lose on us? That just seems spiteful." Rose said, her false anger gone. She seemed quite pleased with herself.

"You seemed to have done alright to me. What happened to your back?"

"Oh, a Liepard was stalking us, and got me a good one before Liz got it."

"Liz?" I tried recall which of her Pokémon was named that, and got nothing.

"Bright Eyes, dumb ass." Oh, yeah, she had another name. Oh well, stupid is my best look.

"Well, then you all met, but have you gotten a formal introduction?" They all shook their heads. "Okay, then, ladies, allow me to introduce to you to Miss Meridia Sanchez, Lieutenant of the Kanto Poke-Rangers. Mare, these young beauties are Bright Eyes and Rosenthal." Rose disliked slightly that I referred to her as Rosenthal, but it just flowed off the tongue better in longer form. Meridia, always the gallant lady, offered her hand, and shook each of the girls hands.

"We need to talk to you for a minute." Bright Eyes said lightly, but her eyes held gravity. She grabbed my hand and pulled me away, Rose following. She pulled me into a huddle.

"Why are we treating that woman as a friendly?" She whispered fiercely.

"Because she's my friend?" I had no idea what the hell had gotten into Bright Eyes, but she seemed pissed… at me. Rose stood mute.

"What are you talking about? She tried to kill us a few months back! Have you already forgotten?"

"Mare? Kill us? Are you okay, Bright Eyes? Because that is the craziest thing that I have ever heard." Maybe she had an infection or something that was making her feverish and prone to imagining things?

"You're crazy. She dropped out of the sky outside of Rose's place with her Charizard! She broke Lil's ribs, stabbed me, and gave you quite a beat down as well? Does all a woman have to do to fool you is dye her hair a different color?" Oh, this is what she is talking about.

"Bree, that's not her."

"You're nuts. I burned that face in my mind that day, and that is it.

"No, Bright Eyes." I added some force. "That was Violetta Sanchez, her sister. This Is Meridia. Believe me, they are not the same." I put dead finality in my voice. "Come on, let's get back to the town. I want to get back to the hotel before dark, and I'll take us all to dinner in celebration of your success. I'll explain it to you later, just trust me, Meridia is… not her sister."

(…)

Sometime between when we started back, and got to the actual restaurant, the balance changed from Bright Eyes and Rose against Mare, to Bright Eyes, Rose, and Mare against me. It was a real subtle shift. I went into the bathroom, and when I came out, boom, three sets of glaring eyes. They all looked lovely in their evening wear, and were formally polite, and started in after the first course was served. They allowed Rose to state it plainly.

"Explain, Yub." Yub? At least that is what I thought I heard.

"Ok, Mare has been with me since we were kids. We grew up together." I got serious, just to make a point. "She is a part of me that I let go of a long time ago, and just got back. Over the three days I waited before coming after you," I said three, even though it had been seven, "I had a chance to re-learn what I had been missing. And I will not, if it is in my power to do so, lose her again. What you do, after tonight, is completely your choice, and you will not hear a word about it from me. But let me just warn you now, if you wish to follow me down the path I have chosen for myself, that you are accepting her as well. Other than that," I raised a glass of wine to make a toast, "I wish to say congratulations, girls, you've all I have to teach you about this. So, the next move is up to you." Bright Eyes blinked, and gave me a sly smile.

"Oh, that's super. Thank you for allowing us this time. But we got to talk while you were in the bathroom… by the way, why were in there for 45 minutes?"

"Reading. The toilet is where I do some of my best work."

"Ew. Anyway, we got to know her a little bit. And your proposal is acceptable to us. We will be sticking with you. We want the bastards out of country, and, no offense to you Meridia, but you still seem like the best chance for that. So we are behind you, so to speak."

The rest of the dinner was surprisingly pleasant. There was no more talk of their arrangement for using me, but I felt the difference in our relationships. We didn't need to discuss it anymore, as the girls would do whatever they wanted.

Looking at it now, maybe that was the way it always was. But I could not willingly do anything with them while, and this is the important part, while I, felt that they were under me. Now maybe I am just weird on this point, but it would have just felt like I was taking advantage of them with my position. I was no longer their teacher, so I could be their friend. Or whatever. I wasn't going to reopen that can of worms if they were content to let it lay.

Everything was fine, until Mare dropped the Bomb that I too had been a Ranger.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up a minute there, Meri. You're trying to tell us that Yub here is a Ranger?" Rose said, holding up her hand.

"Was." I added.

"Shut up." Oh, she was pissed. I think this is the point where both girls realized that they knew nothing about me. Rose looked at Meridia with hard, suspicious eyes. "If it was anyone else telling me this, I wouldn't believe it. Why did he quit?" Mare smile showed me that she was enjoying getting me in hot water. Oh well, had to come out sometime.

"He saw something horrible, broke our regulations, and quit to do what he is doing now."

"Don't sugar coat it, Mare. I disobeyed standing orders, and was to chicken to face you after, so I resigned and ran off with my tail between my legs."

"I thought I told you to shut up. Meri, which side is true?"

"Both." She answered flatly in both voice and face. Rose sighed, and rubbed her brow while Bright Eyes said nothing but merely sat watching.

"Okay, we're going to need stories."

And so, for the next hour, we shared some of our… shenanigans. The parts of the academy we could talk about, harassing the senior staff until they slapped my ass in irons, Macaroni Day. God, that one still gives me the shivers. We ended with the Toilet Affair, which, from what I hear, is still honored among the new recruits. As the Duke would say, "Hail to the King, Baby." Mare, Vio, and I, we left that place with some legends when we graduated. After we finished laughing about that, we cleared out, as Mare wanted to get back to her command center, and start sifting through the data she was going to start leaving for me. The girls got a treat when she threw out her ball and Titan unfolded himself gracefully on the asphalt. He stretched and scratched himself in a lazy, eerily human way. Mare gave us all hugs, said her goodbyes, mounted her dragon, and was off into the darkness. I shoved my hands in my pockets, turned and walked back toward the hotel.

This would be the hardest part of my relationships with Elizabeth and Victoria. Yes, I wanted them, and I wanted them to stay around. But I needed them to realize that they wanted to stay, not that I wanted them to stay. How to do this without looking like a total asshole, well, that's not my specialty. I think failing at not being an asshole is my specialty.

"Hey, where are you going?" Victoria shouted. Elizabeth let her do a lot of the talking, I was noticing. If you wonder here, why I use their real names, their formal names, it is because I needed to think of them like that at the time. Bright Eyes and Rose were my friends, But this was business of a sort, and so they were Victoria and Elizabeth.

"_I_ am going back to _my_ hotel room to pass out. Do you girls have accommodations, or do you need me to front you some cash?" Things got very mixed up then, and I tried to explain to them how the dynamic of our relationship had changed. It was along the lines of me releasing them from my custody, to live and die on their own, now that I was comfortable with their abilities to do so. I think they didn't like the suggestion that… you know what, I have no idea what happened. The more I think about it, the more I get confused. So, I'll just say what happened when I tried explaining it to Elizabeth, as she was less likely to fly off the handle at me.

"Look, it's really very simple. Maybe I'll have an easier time trying to explain it to you. Ok, so here is where we stand now, Elizabeth. I am washing my hands of…

***SLAP***

Holy shit, I think my teeth started bleeding. Not the gums, but the actual teeth. She actually took me to the ground with one slap. I was even a little dazed, my eyes watering as I stood. If my mind hadn't rattled a bit, I would have been proud of the force she could muster.

"Don't you ever," She sputtered with rage, (at least that's what I thought it was at the moment,) "call me that." Her eyes were watery now, but she didn't break down. She met my eyes and maybe it was her smack bouncing my grey matter around like a super ball, but she conveyed everything I needed to know about where we stood in one sentence.

"To you, I am never anything but Bright Eyes." I had never gotten the feeling that I had any form of telepathy with another rhuman before, but she knew exactly what I was playing at.

"And I'll be Rosenthal, you bastard." She was sniffling, but her words echoed the same unspoken thing.

"And we will never be anything else, to you. Now, come along, and no more about leaving us. I think you can sleep on the couch tonight, the way you've behaved." One grabbed each of my arms, and they marched me back to the hotel, and that marked my last chance to bail and go about my life of living for just me and Lilith. My stray kittens had grown up, and just like with real cats, I ceased to rule over them, and they started to rule over me.

Looking back as I search for facts for this story, I will say this, of all the stuff that happens over the course of the next few years of this. The start of this… I'll say it was a confederation… with Bright Eyes and Rosenthal, was the best decision I ever made. And they made it for me, and imposed it upon me. See if that tells you something. One part is, once I had something…physically there… to fight for, it made my entire outlook change, and I realized it was possible, even for me, to be happy in this shitty time.

(…)

I yawned and scratched at myself without coming fully awake. The sun felt good, and I wasn't in a hurry to do…well, anything. It had been just over a year since that eventful dinner With Mare and the girls, and while much had happened, nothing too exciting stood out. I collected the Fuchsia, Celadon, and Cinnabar badges, and the war had been pushed to the east side of the continent, where it had strengthened and was too much for our small group to deal with. Shit, just in the last battle, pushing them out of Celadon, I lost Sandslash and Torterra. We brought them home and buried them in what Bright Eyes is trying to turn into a garden, but in the back, where she said only flowers would be planted. I know where she gets her ideas, and I must say, I approve. I knew where she cribbed from when she formed this family, too, as it was the same place, but I'm not letting on to her that I know.

I yawned again, and scratched at whatever my hand was resting on, trying to figure out what woke me. I was on a lawn chair out front of my… I don't want to say mansion, because that's not what I built it for. It was large, 3 stories, on sunk bellow the ground, around 20 rooms each. Industrial kitchen and showers on the ground floor, bunker like spaces bellow, and our own quarters tucked upstairs. Located out here in the center of the Safari Zone, almost no one knew we were out here. The packs of wild Pokémon that frequented this area had a habit of discouraging exploration as well. I spotted Bright Eyes on her knees in the dirt, working at her fence. I whistled and she looked over. I blew her a kiss, she flipped me the bird, smiling, dirt scuffing her cheeks. I motioned her over, and she stood, dusted her front briefly, and walked over. She was really starting to show, and was all the more beautiful for it. She slid onto my lap and kissed me.

"I told you it's a pointless waste, they're just going to keep knocking it down." She made herself comfortable, and I wrapped my arms around her, resting my hands on her slightly bulging stomach.

"I don't care. I'm going to have a garden even if I have to make the Bidoof extinct myself."

"Whatever, on your shoulders be it. Anyway, wench, any idea what roused me?"

"Yeah, the Tauros are back." Ah, they must be hidden in the tall grass. The herds were not pleased when we moved in, but had adapted to it now, and even took to challenging our defenses as a kind of proving for mating purposes. A solitary Pokemon emerged from the grass near by, and brayed boastingly at the house. Behind me on the porch, Houndoom started growling, without lifting his head, smoke slipping from the corners of his mouth. He yawned, sending the acrid smoke skyward, then rolled onto his back, before releasing a deep sigh and slumping, back to sleep..

"Oh, okay." I tickled her, and she elbowed me in the gut. "What's Rosie up to?"

"Probably about the same as you. You two are so lazy sometimes I worry we'll never get this thing up and running. Why?"

"Don't mess with the way I run things, woman. Besides, you're about the only one who can't seem to understand that days like this are fit for nothing but napping. I think I'm going to send her into town, have her pick up some shit." My Pokedex/gear started to vibrate, and I untangled one hand to fish it out. I split it open, saw that Meridia was calling, and answered.

"Hello?" He words were a rushed jumble.

"Here, at the Headquarters, in force, they're attacking! Too many, can't hold for long. We need help and AHHH…." The connection cut out.

"Shit." Bright Eyes gave me a raised eyebrow. "Up. No, up woman. It's happening. Irving's hitting the Ranger Headquarters." She moved of my lap and helped me to my feet.

"Really? I didn't think the dickless bastard would wait this long." I gave a sharp, long whistle, and ran into the house, almost running into Rose as she was trying to exit.

"Grab your shit, combat load, 2 minutes." I didn't wait to see her reaction, and tore up the stairs. I opened the safe and pulled out my custom made crossbow. It was the small, wrist mounted collapsible model like the one Joanna Dark had in Perfect Dark, except it clipped to the top of the wrist instead of underneath. I grabbed 6 extra clips of 5 steel tipped bolts, and pocketed them on my vest. I clipped the crossbow on, covered it with my sleeve, and slipped on the vest. I opened the sliding side vault and pulled out Rose's heavy crossbow. It was big, a telescopic sight mounted on the top, and a custom fitted stock. Only the best for my girls. I grabbed a handful of armor piercing bolts and tucked them under my arm before closing up the safe and rushing back down stairs, Rose's bow across my shoulder. She met me the base of the stairs, and relived me of the arrows, slotting them into the quiver on the back of her own vest. She hefted her bow and checked it over before slinging it as we walked out the door.

"Wait, let me get my stuff, I'll come too." Bright Eyes got up and moved, and I intercepted her with my hands on her shoulders.

"Not on your life, you aren't. If the bastards are hitting the Ranger HQ, odds are that they might hit here." I turned to the Pokemon that assembled. I recalled Blaziken, Houndoom, Gardevoir, Chansey, and, grudgingly, Lilith. I don't know why, but she does not like her pokeball. I turned to Sceptile, Jolteon, Scyther, and Serperior.

"Guys, nothing gets in this house while I am gone. Not man or Pokemon. Got it? Good. Priority is Bright Eyes." I hopped onto Altaria, as Rose called out Pidgeot and got astride him. Without another word, we flew off toward Saffron.

(…)

It was just after dark when we arrived, although we had been able to follow the smoke and fire for the better part of a half an hour. We landed outside the city, and walked in, watching the looters, troops, and rioters smashing and trashing everything. We were avoided by most of those we passed, but the Ampharos following her and Lil following me probably had more to do with it that anything. As we reached the square housing the HQ, I felt and heard something whish by my ear.

"Down!" I shouted and dove behind a dumpster and Rose covered behind a makeshift barricade. Bolts clicked of the side walk in a loose volley, and I decided to chance a run. Dashing up, swerving, and occasionally ran in a circle, but we made it to the ring of stuff 20 feet out from the entrance to the building. I heard a click and turned my head to come face to face with a cocked bow.

"Whoa, friend, no need for hostility." I said, raising my arms slowly. Lil watched, smart enough to know the range was too close to interfere. The young man had several arrows sticking out of him, and he drooled blood as he held the weapon.

"Who the hell are you? Looter or combatant?"

"Neither, we're here to help you. I'm a friend of Merida Sanchez, what's the situation inside.

"*cough*The bottom 4 floors are all empty of Rangers. They breached the doors about a half hour ago, and my thought is they're going after the Colonel, one floor from the top. Meridia was inside when they hit, and other than that, I just don't know." He coughed again, let out a gurgling sigh, and was gone. I always thought that kind of thing only happened in the movies.

"Rose, at your discretion."

"God, finally!" She puffed, popped out and with a resounding thump she loosed a bolt. A second later there was the sound of shattering glass and a scream of pain. "Lil, open the front door, please." With a growl she stood, roared her fearsome challenge, and with an air sucking boom, she fired her most powerful attack, the Hyper Beam. The coherent lance of blinding yellow energy impacted the building, the high energy chaining explosions across the stonework and shattering everything in its path. I almost felt bad for those inside. I've seen what happens when that attack hits flesh. It just disintegrates it, until there is nothing left, not even ash. The entire building shook, and as the glare faded I rushed in. Lil would follow when she recovered, and Rose would make a bloody nuisance of herself, and keep the windows occupied. I was six floors up before I ran into any resistance, and that was a lone person who died quickly, and quietly. Between that and the floor I needed, there was nothing.

I pushed open the door to the stairs on the 15th floor, and peeked out. Empty save for the bodies of 4 rangers, a clerk, and a single Irving's trooper. I opened my sleeve, and readied my crossbow, sweeping the area just in case. I could hear what sounded like shouting muffled in the distance. I threaded through the red emergency light lit cubicles until I reached the office marked with 4 stars, the General's office. The man yelling was behind this door. I called out Blaziken without dropping the ball, and motioned for him to use strength and rip of the door. He did so with a splinter of wood, and I entered low, bow pointing at an odd scene.

Meridia was at the feet of a man, his finger pointing to a corner where Scallion had a knife to the throat of a man she was holding against the wall. Mare was bleeding in the face, and not moving, and both Scallion and the man were staring at me. This gave the pinned man the time he needed to draw his back up blade, slice the back of her arm, and twist away, his back to a wall across the room.

"Who the fuck are you?" The now red faced assault leader, a Lt. Colonel, if I read the pips right, shouted in the voice of a paper shuffler. I ignored him and looked at Scallion, who already had a compress on her arm, but almost seemed happy to see me.

"We really have to stop meeting like this, Scallion." I caught the knife that she tossed with the back of my left arm, painful but harmless.

*Ka-thunk, Ka-Thunk.* Two of my own bolts entered her shoulders, killing her arms. She gritted her teeth through the pain, while the other man roared in indignant and ultimately impotent fury while pointing his finger at me.

"You will address me when I speak to you, you impudent dog…AHHH!" A quick three part flick of my wrist and his finger traveled to the floor with a spurt of blood as I removed it at the second knuckle.

"I told you not to call me that." Scallion said, leaning against a wall, and then sliding down to a sitting position. I removed her knife from my arm, and tossed it into the wailing mans leg, right above the knee, and he rolled on the ground in agony.

"Sorry, force of habit." She knew that her part in this fight was done, and would haved seemed eerie in her calm, except she knew I could not hurt her. Meridia had told me not to, and she knew that I could not do anything that would displease Mare. If she was alive, anyway, and I took this to mean that she was. Instead, I turned to her previous prisoner, who was now looking like he was going to fight me.

"And you are… no shit, is that you, Yorm?" His Asian features changed to confused, and then a toothy grin. He nodded. "So you're Colonel Thymes? Shit, who would have thought." This was a friend from my academy days. I only ever called him Jormungand, or Yorm for short, due to the Pokémon he had inherited from his father. Bastard had a Rayquaza, I shit you not. Biggest god damn thing I had ever seen, passed down for 4 generations in his family. He was two years ahead of us at the academy, but hung with us plebes because of a crush on Violetta. I switched to business, catching up could wait. "You okay?"

"Just a couple of scratches and bruises, nothing serious."

"How many are left?" He shook his head in dismay.

"Me. And Meridia, if she is still alive." With his slight accent, he pronounced itMay-ridia, which had always made her giggle in the old days. I walked over, kicking the worthless bag of bones that was still whining about his digit out of my way. I checked her out, unconscious, but alive.

"So it's just you two… what about you, Scallion, what about your forces."

"Haven't any." She stated bluntly.

"Bullshit." I countered, but she continued.

"Ell Tee dickhead there was put on to lead this cluster fuck, boy-o. You think if I was commanding either of these two would have still have been alive when you arrived?" She had a point. Violetta had always been good at her job.

"Hmm, I think I see the problem." I thunked three shots into his skull and then turned back to Scallion. "Field promotion, now spill." To my surprise, she spilled. 7 or 8 squads to start the looting, and her own detachment, most of who held up on the lowest three floors. I sent the remainder of my Pokémon to clean them out from the top down, while Chansey tended to the wounded here.

Chansey was an amazing creature. She had a decentralized nervous system, which was how she could take enormous amounts of damage and still survive. Plus, that egg shaped thing in her pouch was like a magic medicine chest that could also make bombs. She was the perfect medic, I just wish I would have found this out sooner, would have avoided more losses.

"So, Yorm, what will happen now? With two living Rangers…"

"I am ranking officer, and I will have no choice but to dis…" I cut him off.

"Wait, re-induct me." He cocked an eyebrow.

"Why?" He was on the board that would have voted to boot my ass had I not quit. He had known, and to an extent, agreed with my motives.

"Because I still loved the Rangers, even though I couldn't be with her anymore. Please, I just want to be there officially for her funeral."

"I can't, the records were targeted first." I turned out an official log book and handed it to him. He cocked another eyebrow.

"Mare worried about it, and left this with me for safe keeping, just in case." His suspicion remained, but he nodded.

_8:45 P.M, James Stone is officially reinstated into service by order of Colonel Sven Thymes, Commanding officer._

_8:46 P.M. with only three remaining members, and all facilities, records and personnel destroyed, Commanding Officer Sven Thymes hereby officially disbands the PokeRangers, Kanto, from service._

He sighed, a tear in his eye, and began to tuck the log book in his stuff when I snatched it from him.

"Hey, what are you…" I held up a finger, and continued the log.

_8:47 P.M, Former, and now reformed Ranger James Stone hereby officially founds a new chapter of the PokeRangers, Kanto, as acting Commander. Other founding members include Recruits Sven Thymes, Meridia Sanchez, Violetta Sanchez, Elizabeth Voi, and Victoria Stevens. Temporary headquarters and archives are to be kept on the personal land of acting Commander James Stone until such time as a suitable replacement facility is found, or such time as he gets tired of the hassle and kicks everyone out._

_Furthermore, acting Commander James Stones shall be regarded as the highest authority until such time as a charter and book of laws can be drafted, at which point the acting commander shall relinquish dictatorial power._

I tossed it back to him, and he looked it over quickly. He looked up with a frown.

"I'm going to rebuild the Rangers into something that fits with the world today, honoring the old, but relevant for us now."

"How can you build from the old, when the old has all been destroyed?" He was upset, but I could see he was interested. Hell, even Scallion was paying attention now. I stuck my hands in my pockets and tried to look disinterested.

"Over the past year I've gotten all the records copied and stored in a couple of safe areas. So with this log you have, we should be about right up to date. Does that suit you?"

"Not sure, but for now it will do. What now, and why did you put her name down?" He was asking me for orders? Hmm, I think I liked the thought of him being ranked below me.

"I put her name down, because as Commander, I can, and I like the thought of the last four surviving people who have received the gift of belonging to that wonderful brotherhoods last cooperative act to be the birth of a new one. Plus, I have plans. Now shut up and head downstairs and back up Rose and Lilith. Rose is a skinny red head with a big assed bow, and Lil is now a big yellow scaled dragon with an axe for a face." He nodded and drew his knife, walking briskly from the room. I tossed out my final ball, and Chansey looked around placidly. "Level with me, Vee. Are you going to behave?" She nodded, and maybe I am a sucker, but I believed it. "Alright, direct me to all your non hidden weapons." She did, and I removed them. "Alright, good, now, I'm going to remove one bolt, and Blaziken is going to cover you while you remove your hidden weapons." She agreed, and I removed the bolt in her right shoulder, and turned away, so she could disarm. Now, I know you probably thing this was odd, given our history. But, I had plans, and this was in them. And a hidden weapon ceases to be useful if it is know where it is kept. She stated that she was finished and I turned back around. I pulled out the second bolt, then helped her remove her bloody jacked, leaving her in a simple black tank top. "Chansey, paint her." I was shoved aside as she pushed by me and bustled around the wounded woman like an old flustered nurse who's been locked out of a patients room by family.

"Why do this?" She was surprised that the pink blob was painting her wounds with one of its magical healing salves.

"Meh, I'm not really the kind to hold a grudge. She was unconvinced. "Never mind that. I've never seen you give up this easy before. You a bomb?" She wasn't, but she did swear explosively.

"No, it's that fucking idiot Irving." She looked at me, with almost a pleading look, which startled me slightly. "You don't think I was responsible for this move, do you?" My look said that I was leaning that way. "Oh, come on, you really think this operation would have been this sloppy if it were mine?"

"Oh, that's what you mean."

"Yeah, if Irving hadn't put that boot licking bastard over there in command, but instead put me, what do you think would have happened. I sat on a desk across from her and thought about it for a second. She wanted me to acknowledge that she was better than this, from an efficiency standpoint anyway.

"I'd imagine that the place would be razed, the files stolen rather than torched, and you would have been long gone by the time I got here. You could be a scary bitch when you put your mind to it." She gave me a genuine smile.

"Thank you. But that is why I can't do this anymore. That crazy bastard is setting himself up to fail, and I will go down, but not for him. I will go out on my own. So, how you going to do this?" Chansey backed away, adjusted a bandage, and moved on. I came forward, leaned back against the wall, and slid down beside her.

"Well, I always believe that there is a choice in these things." Not for me. Mare asked me not to hurt her, and I wouldn't. "So, I have a proposition for you." I outlined to her the basics of what I was planning, and the part that I had in mind for her. "What do you think, sound like something you would be interested in?" If she wasn't, one of the girls could always arrange an accident that I would know nothing about while she was staying in our holding cells.

"You keep being this soft, it will get you killed."

"Probably, but it's worked out good so far. What do you say?" She thought about it, and then offered her hand. We shook, and then I helped her to her feet. Chanssey had revived Mare, and I briefly went over what happened, and after she hugged her sister, she fell in behind me silently.

"Good deal. Do I need to bind your hands, or will you be good?" She promised to be good, and I had all her weapons, and Blaziken and Mare had her covered, so I was not worried. I let her lead as well, never one to be reckless. We made it outside without incident, and Rose was against a barrier, her back to us, while Yorm waved us over, ignoring the fact that Violetta was un bound. He always was a good soldier, and would be a big asset in the coming months.

"Any hassle?" I asked her as we came up.

"Nothing to worry about boss." She lowered the bow, and turned. He eyes widened and she tried to bring it to bear on Vee, but I intercepted it and pushed the launch end up. Her eyes flashed with rage. "What the hell are you doing with that bitch?"

"Knock it off." I growled. "This is…

"I know who it is. It's that bitch Scallion who has been trying to kill us for the past year." She tried to shake off my hand, but I kept it clamped.

"No. Scallion died up in that building. This is Violetta, Meridia's sister, who is coming with us."

"What? Are you fucking kidding me? They are the same goddamned person!" Ok, so maybe it was just Bright Eyes who picked up on the Name thing a year ago, and Rose was just following her lead then.

"Yes, that's true, but it doesn't matter, I'll explain it to you later. Let's go home and draw up some quarters for Yorm here." She was still pissed, but let it go, offering her hand to Yorm.

"Hello, Mr…" She left it open and, always the gentleman, took the hand and bowed over it, surprising the hell out her.

"Sven Thymes, Ma'am." Recovering from her shock, she smiled genially.

"And I am Victoria Stevens. Very nice to meet you." She then turned to me. "Hey, asshole, I like this one, I know where he can stay." I paused after recalling all but Blaziken and throwing out Altaria.

"Whatever you want, sweetheart. Yorm, want to send out Theo and help me run interference? Bright Eyes is going to be pissed, and I need you guys to keep her from killing Vee when we land." Yorm tossed his ball, and the enormous dragon uncurled on the asphalt. Before anything else could happen, the was an exultant roar off to our left. Lilith came charging across the open space, bounding into the air and hitting Theobald between the arms, clutching his snake like body. Her blade tusks were bloody, she'd been busy. I am so glad she doesn't greet me like that anymore. She purred a high pitched tone of pure happiness, but I knew it was just a matter of time before she saw… there it is. Her purring stopped abruptly as her eye landed on Vee. It picked back up as a low, hostile growl. Shit, I had never heard this one before. I think it essentially meant that she did not like Scallion, and what she imagined she was about to do was due to correct a personal affront. She dropped to the ground, hunched low as she advanced, the growl remaining constant, but rising in volume. Her mouth opened to emit a roar, and I yelled at her.

"Lilith, down!" She continued her growl, but halted her progress as if paralyzed. "I said DOWN!" I swung my arm as if to clip her, but ended it with a soft pat on the top of her head. Her eyes didn't swivel away from Violetta, but she slapped her ass to the ground in a facsimile of a human sitting with knees bent out in front of her. She continued to hiss, and I was almost impressed by the weight my words still carried. Lucky for Vee that Lil is a really good soul. "Lil," My voice was an attempt at soothing, "Violetta is not an enemy." Her noise stopped, and all hostile posture dropped at the word "Violetta." She turned her head and cocked it inquisitively at me. Lil was smart. She still remembered the day that Violetta ceased to be Violetta, and became Scallion, and knew that I would have never referred to as such to Lil if the feelings behind her earning a nickname were still in effect. "Be nice. She and Titan and Theobald are all coming to live with us now." she perked at this, and was excited at having all her Pokémon friends back with her for the long term. God, I wish I could cycle emotions that .

With all the basics taken care of, I recalled her and Blaziken, and we headed home.

(…)

I managed to mollify Rose, at least temporarily, by pushing her off onto Yorm. After that, it was a small matter to put Meridia in a bed, leave Titan and Chansey to look after her, and place Violetta in a cell in the basement area with the amenities she'd need. I made my way to my quarters to find Bright Eyes in bed, her glasses on and reading a book. _The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & other stories_, by Etgar Keret. A good one. Real fucked up stuff.

"You know how sexy you are when you have you glasses on?" I asked her wearily as I climbed in next to her. I had opulent pillows, because, damn, I love pillows.

"You do tell me often enough." She had her severe manner on. This girl took to being the head of a family like she was born to do just that. I had a bit of insight into what she was trying to structure it like, because she got the ideas out of my books. Basic tenets of our family meant that while technically we were not married, we were in all practical matters. Rules were simple. New additions had to be nominated and approved unanimously. You could opt out at anytime, with a nice severance package, with penalties depending on the number and age of children currently under our care. Finally, the whole point of this was the happiness of those involved, and more than anything, to protect the welfare and security of the children. In my opinion, a solid objective in any long term relationship.

Bright Eyes closed her book and put it aside before fixing me with a look that struck me as the kind you get from your mother when you screw up bad.

"James, what is that woman doing in my house?" Her voice was calm and cold.

"She was apprehended in the Tower shortly after the PokeRangers disbanded, and was captured as a prisoner shortly after the reformation. She is going to provide information on the final strongholds of Irving's Army."

"Stronghold." She said in the same tone, telling me that the plural was unnecessary.

"So?" I countered, wishing her to continue.

"On the Television, locals rose up in Vermillion and pushed the occupying force out. All that's left are in Lavender town, regrouping. Now, why is that woman in my house?" I sighed.

"Because your house in now the Headquarters of the New Kanto PokeRangers, Me commanding, you Rose, Mare and Yorm being the only four members, all ranked Private." She asked more questions, and eventually ended up spilling my plans for Violetta, and for the PokeRangers, now that I was the tyrant in charge. We talked until she was, if not confident that I knew what I was doing, at least satisfied that she could handle whatever the flak that would follow. We snuggled a bit, and then I promptly passed into the sleep of the exhausted.

(…)

Over the course of setting up this new iteration of the Rangers, I cribbed a lot of ideas. I borrowed heavily form the Patrol in the book _Space Cadet_. The Rangers would be a similar organization, loyal to the people we protect, second to itself, thirdly to no one. It would be outside of all cities, affiliated with none, and act in ways benefiting all, with preference given to no individual. Not even the country of Kanto would actually own our alligence. Personal responsibility was key. Each Ranger would be a part of the unit, but on a smaller scale would receive a mission, and do it according to their own plan, and not only would be responsible for their choices, but would take responsibility and be held accountable. And yes, I know that's just like the Spectre's in _Mass Effect._

It's a good time to be setting up a system like this now, because I have two hardened troops to test with, and one prisoner. This might actually work.

(…)

_In view of outstanding service in the previous incarnation of the Rangers, and 6 months of faultless service in this iteration, Private Sven "Jormungand" Thymes is, as of today, is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is placed in charge of all of the paperwork I no longer feel like doing._

(…)

Meridia wanted to be added to ort family. It was passed unanimously almost instantly, my vote coming last. We now number Me, Bright Eyes, Rose, and Meridia.

(…)

Bright Eyes had her baby today. We (read she) named him Richard, but I made her give him her last name. So, I am given a son, Richard Voi.

(…)

Rose talked Yorm into opting in to the family.

(…)

_Today, one and one half years after the battle at Saffron city and the capture of the Irving's Army Major Violetta Sanchez has proven her commitment to our chapter of the Rangers through diligent and dangerous service. She will be allowed to join as a probationary recruit agent, pending completion of the assessment._

_(…)_

_Violetta Sanchez becomes the first person to pass the assessment, and is awarded the rank of Private._

_(…)_

It's been so busy I have not had much time for anything, much less updating this. The academy accepts its first class in four months, but I had to take the time to write this down. Funniest thing I have ever seen.

Ok, so, Lilith had been curious about little Richard since she first saw him, and Bright Eyes chased her off. She's been trying for weeks to get a good look at him. She was not happy at first, but I explained to her that this little creature was what happened when humans made an egg. She was immensely interested after that, but Bright Eyes was always vigilant, and kept her away.

Until today.

We were working outside, Bright Eyes hanging a dead Bidoof on the fence of her garden as a warning to the others, and me putting up another section of inner fencing, while Richard played in the dirt nearby. Why do babies love the dirt so much? Lilith, flat on her stomach, inched forward on her belly slowly until she was almost face to face with the baby. She sniffed him excitedly, and he gurgled and giggled, as babies are wont to do, patting her on the face. She made a series of noises back, and I stopped to watch. She could control the keenness of her blade tusks, and they were dull to the point of being flat edged, so I wasn't worried. Richard threw a tiny fistful of sand over Lil's face, and she snorted to clear her nostrils, blasting the baby with a gout of warm air and dust. He squeaked with delight, and gibbered, and I could tell Lil enjoyed the reaction. He picked up another handful, but deposited a fair amount in his own mouth. Lil lifted her head and looked at him masticate the dirt. She sat up and looked at me to explain it. I shrugged, he really just liked the feel of the dirt on his gums, I think. She watched him gum noisily for another minute. He beat his tiny fist on the ground, and suddenly, Lilith vomited a torrent of reddish, semisolid matter all over the entirety of the baby. Ever the perfect father, I promptly started laughing my ass off. The baby, confused but not unhappy, splashed joyously in the stinky mess.

"What the hell is going on!" Bright Eyes yelled, sprinting over. I was rolling on the ground, in no state to answer, and Lil bolted, fearing reprimand. "My God, what did she do to my baby!" I held up a finger, got shakily to my feet, and dabbed at the tears in my eyes.

"I…I think Lilith thought *cough* that she thought that Richard was hungry, and she tried to…" I was incoherent as another fit of laughter washed over me.

After a bath, she brought him back out, and under _her_ supervision, let Lil get better acquainted.

(…)

_Violetta "Crosspatch" Sanchez is promoted to the rank of Major, and attached to the Acadamy as Commandant._

_(…)_

_After much deliberation and advisement, Jormungand is promoted to General, and placed in record as commanding officer of the New Kanto Pokerangers. As such, the role of acting commander is now disbanded._

_As of this writing, the T.O. stands as such:_

_General Jormungand – Commanding Officer_

_Colonel Meridia – Second in Command_

_Major Crosspatch – Commandant of the academy_

_Capitan Bright Eyes_

_Capitan Rosenthal_

_Lieutenant Stone_

_Last law on the book before I am cast out:_

_Henceforth, all rangers of this chapter will be assigned a name that will be the only term used to identify them outside their official record._

_(…)_

The first class is in, and processed, and training is underway. It's only a dozen people, but I have a feeling the attrition rate is going to be at least 50%, but we'll see. Myself, I'm taking my Pokemon and were going to see if I can't cut over the Jhoto border and see what it's like over there. Oh, shit, I almost forgot to talk about what happened with Irving. We didn't even have to get involved. It was on the news about a week after Saffron. A militia of local people, not even affiliated with the Gym Leaders, marched into Lavender to deal with him. They found him suicided on the top floor of his HQ. They took his body outside, strung it up and burned it. At least Violetta accepted her judgment, and is working to help the victims of her misguided ambition.

Anyway, I am setting out tomorrow, and don't know when I shall return.

Now, when I started this Journal, I had some bullshit self-righteous motive, I'm sure. Now… I don't know, maybe I feel better knowing there is a record of what it was like fighting against the bad, and the fall and rebirth of the rangers. Anyway, I've got to get packing, so… I'll let you imagine your own closing word here. _.

**End 7**


	8. A New Chapter

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#8: A New Chapter**

I put down my Fathers worn Journal in the drawer of my bedside table, and rolled over, falling asleep almost instantly. Tomorrow was the final examination to become an officer, and I needed the rest. They'll drop us, literally, out in different areas of the park.

My name is Richard Voi, although my moniker is simply "Grimm." Hell if I know why. My father disappeared when I was just over a year old, and that was 18 years ago. Mom won't elaborate on the final entry in his Journal, and I plan to get over the Johto border no matter what it takes. I'm leaving as soon as I get my commission after the test is done. I told mom, and Rose and Meridia this, and though they see it as futile, they support my decision. General Yorm was the only one who is dismissive of the notion, but they all agree that if nothing else, it could be a good experience for me to have. I'm not worried though. The military is strong over there, and still has the vice grip it had 18 years ago. I need to look, if nothing else, and try to find what happened. I have one thing, which Mom told me that he left specifically for me, and that is his best knife. I've heard enough stories to know how significant that is.

(…)

I was shaken roughly out of sleep and instantly came alert. The General's Machamp was already down the line of beds, shaking the next of the students up. I grabbed my book style pokedex/gear from the bedside table and checked the time. 00:01. The exam was literally starting first thing in the morning. I threw on my pants and a grey t-shirt, with a long sleeved over shirt, and grabbed my fedora style hat, a straight razor tucked securely inside with a circular length of wire., and placed it on my head. My father's knife clipped to my waist, and 8 small throwing blades completed my arming, and I slipped on and laced my boots, two boot knives in each, and ready before the Pokémon made its return round. I saw a Flareon sitting at the exit, grabbed my cane, (also bearing a long, concealed sword blade) and walked over. It nodded curtly at me, and I waited, the first person ready.

Early in training, one of the other recruits commented that I carried a lot of blades. I was always taught that redundancy was the surest way to avoid catastrophe. As to knifes, I was wearing one from the day I was old enough to respect them. My mother told me a story once about the importance of always going armed.

It was shortly after they moved into this building. My father had told her ages before that she was to always carry at least a single knife. One day they were outside working, and something led him and her to make contact while she was not wearing one. He beat her, severely. Needless to say, she never again went unarmed at any point in time. Point is, the next day, she was doing something that was not in anyway dangerous, when she was attacked without warning by a wild Liepard. If she hadn't had her knife, she would have gotten killed. I took the moral to heart, and made it so under any circumstances under my control; I would never be without one.

As the last candidate lined up, the Flareon turned with a swish of its tail and led us out into the crisp, dark night. There was no moon. So, dropped in unknown conditions in pitch black, overly hostile territory. I know it was overly hostile, because Mom told me that they antagonize the Pokémon in the areas of the drop to make sure that they were pissed for when we were dropped. Our goal was simple: survive until recall sounded, and then make it back to base. Simple in theory, that is. You see, many of the instructors Pokemon not only like to live out here in when not needed, but also, many had packs of followers that they could have cause problems for us. Wild Pokémon were no sweat, but coordinated groups of them could cause tremendous complications. Thank God we were allowed to take our own Pokemon with us.

General Jormungand and Commandant Crosspatch were waiting for us next to Yorm's enormous dragon, Theobald. He told us that we were to mount Theo and tagt the Commandant would be shoving us off over where ever she felt like doing so. She added what a burden of paperwork it would have been for any of us to get killed, what with the honorary commission awarded for the death, and forbade us from dying. Easier said than done, but I wasn't worried. Once all of us were mounted, the snakelike dragon lifted effortlessly into the air, and at a startling speed rushed into the darkness.

(…)

I was 6th in line, and had my cane strapped to my back so I would not lose it when I was pushed. Violetta wished me luck in a whisper, and shoved me sideways into the air. I fell for about 5 feet and slid on the ground before tumbling end over end and landing in a graceless heap in sand. Shit, the desert. Oh well, at least once the sun was out, nothing could hide in the flat land. The stars were bright enough to let me distinguish shapes in the gloom, but only at a distance of about 2 feet. I popped a pokeball of my belt, and tossed it, shielding my face from the flash, so as not to lose what little night vision I had gained. Europa sniffed the air, and then moved close, pressing her snout to the palm of my hand. She was another gift from father, and Mother Meridia.

Europa hatched from the sole egg ever laid by fathers Haxorus, Lilith, and was sired with Meridia's regal Dragonite, Titan. Both being exceptional examples of their breed by all accounts, Eroupa was again extra special. First off, she was a head shorter that her mother was said to be, and of a more spare build. She was loyal to a fault, and as beautiful and startlingly powerful a creature as her father, with a royal air about her every move. Secondly, she was remarkable in that she was what was termed a "Shiny" Pokémon. In ancient times, such examples were common, but thought to be a defect, as only about 1 in 10 presented the qualities that made them different. As such, they were destroyed when found, cutting the occurrence over the intervening years down to 1 in a few 100,000. Nowadays, such Pokémon are treasured for their rarity and superior growth, evolved throughout the generations to insure that they were stronger than their peers to avoid the culling that nearly wiped out the gene responsible. As such a variant, Europa was considerably stronger than a peer of similar experience, and had jet black scales where a contemporary would have sunflower gold plates. I never ceased to be amazed by her gentle disposition, but savage brutality, coexisting peacefully within her.

I lay down in the sand to try and catch a few hours sleep, leaving Europa's superior senses to guard me, and drifted slowly to sleep, wondering what the day would bring.

(…)

The sun was high overhead, causing tremendous glare of the white sand. Let me just say that having grown up in the safari zone has its advantages. This came in the form of my knowledge of certain landmarks though out the enclosure. The disadvantage was that my instructors knew I knew this, and would therefore provide other challenges. Using my Pokegear's compass function, I was, in no great amount of time, able to reach the oasis. The large palms were visible over the flat landscape long before Europa was able to smell the water. It was lucky I knew this was here, as the desert was around the size of approximately 7 square miles, and this spring was the only water source in it.

The oasis was about 300 feet from shore to shore, and just over 8 feet deep, except where it was feed from its underground font. The water itself was so crystal clear that the only indication of its presence was the darker wet sand that descended from its edge. The entirety of the bottom's softly rippled sand was visible, little green plants swaying gently near the mouth of the source. A school of Goldeen and one of Magikarp were just in the little patch of water I could see. From here, we would head northwest into the densest forest in the region and make a camp up in the trees. But I could afford to let Europa play in the water for a while. It was late autumn, so even though the sun shown bright in the clear sky, there was still a bite of chill in the air.

Europa hovered her head over the water, blade tusk tips touching the surface of the water, motionless. Then with a quick lunge, she snatched a fish, and with a snap of her head, devoured it. After she finished, she looked to me, I nodded, and with a small roar of joy, she leapt and crashed into the water. She liked to swim, and I liked to indulge her. A half an hour later we moved on. It was a dull trip, a there were no problems until we hit the dunes. Sand is a pain in the ass to move on, and it slowed me considerably. I had been uneasy for a long time, with no inclination as to why. That was when I came to a sand funnel, and noticed that it was abandoned. I realized that I had seen no other living things since we left the oasis, and the desert was not sparsely populated, either. I only know of 2 things that will cause a Trapinch to leave its hollow, and I really hoped it was the carnivorous one. I told Europa to be on alert, and made for the top of the tallest dune in the area.

Shit. They were everywhere. The floor of the desert seemed to be alive, so many where scuttling about. At least twelve raised groves of sand were circling the base of the dune we were on; it seemed like around 40 more were closing. It was a pack of fucking Sandile. Odds were good that they were being led by a Krokorok, and my bigger fear was eased. But, a pack of fifty Sandile was still not optimal. I tossed out my other two Pokemon as Europa started growling. Braviary and Carracosta both had a type advantage, so the odds were a little more even now. Carracosta started the battle with a Scald, boiling the two 'Dile closest to the top. Braviary dove, digging it's talons into the sand and plucking another screeching into the air. Europa staggered and slid backward as three popped up from the sand an grabbed onto her.

I turned just quick enough to bring up my cane and block the gapping mouth of one of the little beasts. I triggered the release and let its momentum remove the scabbard before stabbing it through. I then swiveled, bisecting another while it was in the air and clipping one off of Europa. Another jumped, its mouth wide and drooling, and I blocked as before, but with no wooded scabbard, the beast caught blade at the corner of its mouth, and continued forward, cutting it in half until about its stomach. It went on in a furious frenzy for another 5 minutes, until finally I spotted the Krokorok, sitting back and coughing up sludge Bombs. I kicked of the corpse of my latest attacker, and with my left hand flicked upward, slinging 4 throwing knives at the therapod. They clustered in the chest area, and made it roar with anger and pain. It then made a noise I am not familiar with. It was a kind of keening screech, almost a moan. After that, much to my dismay, it moved to burrow away. I dashed as fast as I could, and dove, driving my sword point through it's skull. I whirled quickly, to fend off the ensuing rush of little gators, but they were gone. I recovered my knives, and looked around, wondering why they left, and feeling that the answer would not be to my benefit. We regrouped at the top of the dune, and I recalled Braviary and Carracosta, and when we saw no sand stir, Europa and I began to continue north. We made it about half a mile when I noticed it was getting harder to breath. A bit of wind had picked up too. That was when I noticed that I could hear… something. It was a low, distant rumbling. I turned around and…

"Oh, fuck me." Europa had seen it two, and we ran like poor bastards. A sandstorm was brewing on horizon, and it carried promise of the real thing I feared to meet in the desert.

There is, in the vast see of sand that is the desert, anything that cannot fly fears. It was marked by the perpetual sandstorm that its body manufactured. Needless to say, I did not want to be here when it arrived. In the realm of sand, Hippowdon was king, and everything there knew it. We were about the distance of a mile away from the site of the Sandile ambush when the Hippowdon arrived there. Its roar was still painfully loud, even at this distance, and served to quicken my pace. I should have guessed. Many Pokémon in this place formed packs of different species, since many of the strongest were ones released back into the wild. It would have taken something insanely powerful to command that many Pokémon. The Krokorok's last utterance must have been a cry for help from its master.

Now, I REALLY did not want to be on sand when it arrived. I could see the band of green forest about two miles away, and if we made a heroic effort, we could, maybe reach it. Once we left the sand, it would have to move above ground, and the sandstorm would weaken. While still a terrific threat, it would be cumbersome and slower above the earth. Half way there, I could feel the air born grit at the storms lead stinging the back of my neck. Before we noticed, the view of the forest got hazy, and lost in a monotonous brown, constantly boiling haze. I kept pounding away, just on the edge of, but too tired to reach full panic. Suddenly, I felt a tangle of grass under my feet, and the ground solidified. The haze cut slightly, and trees lurched out of the gloom. There was a loud crack, and the sound of splintering wood as the Hippo bit through a tree. Ducking and weaving through the trees and bramble patches, we moved deeper into the forest, and as the brush thickened, we gained distance on the pursuer, and eventually left it completely behind. We took a brief rest when all elements of the sandstorm had dissipated, before continuing north, as I intended to sleep in a tree tonight, and move into the jungle in the morning.

(…)

The following morning dawned bright and clear, but clouds on the horizon spoke of rain. After Europa brought us some breakfast, we moved further north, the trees getting denser, and the air getting humid tang to it. It was not hard to tell when the forest ended, and the jungle began, as the difference in plant life was evident to even the casual observer. I took off my hat and wiped my forehead, and was in the process of replacing it when I saw a piece of paper in tucked inside. I pulled it out, and unfolded it, to find a single line of scrawled text.

_Bonus offered for your capture._

Far from the foreboding that most would feel, had they understood the message, I was a might relived. Due to my lifelong familiarity with surviving in the safari zone, (don't know why Dad never changed the name) I knew that there was going to be extra conditions imposed on me. Setting the other candidates out to catch me was just the kind of thing the Commandant would get a giggle out of. This meant that I could assume that the other students knew where I was dropped, what I was equipped with, and my basic habits. If I had to guess at the writing, I would say it was the Commandant's as well, which would make sense for her as well. If they were trying to trap me, but I was aware of it, it was going to be a hell of a lot tougher on them. In fact, she probably knew that if I knew this, I wouldn't just sit and wait for them; I would actively go and find them. So be it. This could be fun, rather than mundane. I whistled at Euro to stop her rooting around in something, and we moved from the verdant into the fetid. It wasn't long before I ran into a game trail, and followed it for a while, until it reached a little stream. Here is where I caught the first evidence of another, and that I was behaving predictably. The trail followed parallel to stream once it met it, and also crossed it by way of a path of stones. The environment had been subtly altered. After a little bit of silent investigation, I discovered a pit trap, and a series of snare traps, disguised, but not invisible. They were placed in such a way that I could get through, but not easily. I turned and was about to follow the trail by the stream, when my unease made me pause. I moved up to Euro and whispered to her.

"Hey, let's take the way across the stream." She looked down and me, and shook her head, then pointed to several of the traps. They were plainly obvious even to her eyes.

"Ok, good, we go that way." I knew what was bothering me, and we were going to cross the traps. The area ahead of the traps left no cover, no opportunity for an ambush. The traps were visible enough that you almost couldn't miss them. I reasoned that means I was meant to see them. My classmates were not stupid. So I was meant to take the other path, were an ambush was waiting. And had I not been aware they were after me, I would have done so, so I would not inconvenience a fellow in case the traps were there to help then catch food. We'll, now the tables would be turned. I would cross the traps, and creep through the jungle until I found the ambush site, and give whoever it was a surprise of my own. I recalled Europa, her bulk not being suitable for where I was going, and began crossing.

(…)

I sat on a log, singing to myself, slicing a piece of vegetable into a small pot by the side of a small fire under the dank canopy. My attempted captor was bound with some thick vines and lay on her side of to the side of the clearing. It was Blondie, which was not only the only name I knew, but an apt moniker at that. We had fooled around for a while, nothing serious, and it was just an attempt in her part to get me to show leniency on her in sparing through subtle emotional manipulation. Her broken nose spoke to how well that worked. She had been conscious for at least 3 minutes now, and I was just waiting for her to make it known that she wanted it known. After two more songs, she stirred slightly, and fake a moan of pain.

"Morning, Blondie, what brings you to my neck o' the woods." She answered in a string of expletives most unbecoming of a young lady. I ignored it, and waited for her to calm, and she remained in moody silence. "Call Pax?" I asked. She remained stony, and I finished placing things in the pot, and placed it over the fire. The soup was boiling in no time and I dumped a portion of it into the cup I scavenged of her and pulled it off the fire. She called Pax a minute later, when the smell reached her, and I set the cup down, and moved over. I drew my good knife and slashed her bonds, and returned to my seat.

"What the hell did you sap me for?" She asked, rubbing her wrists and sitting next to me. I sipped at the soup before answering.

"I saw you're traps, guessed the intent, and just followed parallel to the river until I found you set up.

"So you blundered through my trap for food?" She asked crossly.

"No, I saw through your trap for me. I know the score, sweetie." I flicked her the piece of paper, and she looked it over.

"Son of a bitch." She said, before tossing it in the fire, and taking the cup I offered her before tasting it gingerly. "When did you learn to cook?"

"Didn't, just threw shit in a pot." I topped off her cup.

"So what now?" She asked. I had caught her fair and square, so I was, by the laws of the Rangers, allowed to do whatever I wished, and this far into training, she did not even view this as strange. It was just an information gathering question, neutral.

"I go on my way, and leave you to your knitting." She cocked an eyebrow.

"Really?" There was bewilderment in her voice, as I voided my option. "Not even a little Viking Conquest?" It's always so refreshing when women are direct about their desire.

"You know I don't cotton to rape, Blondie. Beside, been their done that. If anything, I'd make you pay for your lapse in alertness with finality. But, luckily for you, I take after my father, I almost paid the same price, and the Commandant would most likely frown on killing."

"You slipped in your vigilance?" She seemed even more shocked.

"Yeah, bad. On outset, I just assumed all my gear was where I had left it. I didn't find the note until about 10 minutes before I found your trap." I stood, gave her a mock salute, and made to take off.

"Wait, you're leaving now?" I turned back, and nodded. She looked hurt. "Well, you may have voided your option, but you're still welcome to…spend the night… If you would like to." I rubbed my chin, appearing to think about it.

"You know, I had other plans, but I think your offer beat the hell out of them."

(…)

I left her before she awoke the next morning, as I had places to go, and the less I lingered, the less likely it would be that someone else would come across us. It not that we desired that no one was to know we had had sex. That had happened before, and was common knowledge. Casual sex was actually promoted as a team building exercise, and stress relief technique at the Ranger lodge. Plus, it helped in the lessons where we needed to show that we could do our duties regardless of emotional attachments. It's why we were started in teams, and then broken into solo as sacrifices, defections, and other exercises were launched. Besides, we were not the only people of our group that had partnered. Odds were most of us had fooled around with most of our class, one time or another. It was actually kind of symbolic, if you think about it. Because once we were inducted, we ceased being anything we had been before. Our identities were erased, and we were reborn as Rangers. All other Rangers were our brothers, and it seemed right that we could share together in happiness. And, she told me later that she preferred it that way, anyway.

Ok, so where was I? Oh, yes.

To say nothing else happened between then and recall would be an understatement. Now that I knew that the others were looking for me, I was conspicuously un-find-able…Er… Unavailable. So, I stirred around, avoiding anywhere that looked like it would have a person near it, until recall sounded. We were given two hours after the last of us returned to clean up and eat, and then it was graduation.

(…)

Graduation was held, as always, in the central hall. Commandant Crosspatch stood, glaring with disapproval at us from behind a podium that had been dug out for this occasion. The twelve of us stood, shoulder to shoulder at parade rest as she began her speech.

"As of today, you all are to become officers in the corps of Rangers." She began, her look not changing. "You are being inducted into an elite brotherhood of skilled professionals. As of today, you are no longer citizens of a nation. You are soldiers. Your only loyalty lies with the organization. Your duty is to protect the populace, not one nation, but as a whole. We exist to balance the world, to spend ort time and lives so that others can live in peace and happiness. Our origin, and dedication to ourselves is what makes us strong. We were founded to create a world where one could have their children without fear of unfriendly strangers."

"It was not always this way. Myself, Meridia, and Jormungand were all a part of the Rangers before the war broke out, and it was nearly destroyed. It was saved by one man's dedication to its preservation, and we owe are current strength and foundation to him. I myself owe him my life, and I believe I am doing a fair job in paying my debt. I was once the enemy due in the attempted sating of my ambition that could only lead to my death at the hands of a childhood companion. Instead of meting out my well deserved consequence, he asked me a question. He said: "Ok, Vee, I'm building an academy and I want you to be at the head. I know I have every right to end you for what you have done, but Mare asked me not to hurt you, and so there we have it. What do think, does that fit in with your modest visions of the future?"

"And that was how it happened, and I ended up having to waste my days making sure you all are prepared to go out there and protect the rabble." She motioned for the brunette at the front of the queue to step up to her. "With these pair of plain gold pips, you are hereby inducted into the Rangers, welcome, Lieutenant Ginger." She pinned on the shoulder pips, and gave the same spiel to each of us in turn, until all twelve of us had been processed. We were told to enjoy our last night of freedom, for tomorrow morning, we went on duty, and once someone steps up to their duty, there is no stepping back down.

**End 8**


	9. Legacy

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#9: Legacy**

I crossed the border into Johto without much trouble. Didn't even kill the guy, but he will need some help walking for at least a month. I swapped out for his uniform, that of a Perish Guard, so I believe they refer to themselves as, stowing my own, because I liked the outfit I had brought. I had Europa trailing me in the dense forested area just over the Indigo Plateau, as it was nice to have her senses backing mine. We were being tracked, but by what, I wasn't sure. All the usual tricks for catching a tail were not working, and I was getting frustrated. We knew something was out there, but we could not find it. Finally, I recalled Europe, told the forest that it could sit and spin, and stalked haughtily on my way. 8 minutes later the follower jumped me.

It was a slim human form, swathed in black and lightning quick. I was not able to avoid the first volley. And I say volley, because the person landed a string of 12 jabs before I could muster a rebuff. I brandished my cane in its scabbard, but was unable to land a hit. This went on for way to long, me getting my ass beat, and my opponent… well… getting their ass less beat. I had, by build and by face, identified my assailant as a woman, a very pretty one at that. In a last ditch effort, I tossed the cane at her, which she caught deftly, giving me just enough time to throw myself forward and bring her down under my higher mass.

Have you ever tried to force a pissed of cat into a box it does not want to go into? This was a bit like this, with a 115 pound cat. In what felt like an hours of struggle (that was really only like 30 seconds) I managed to get her arms pinned.

"Call pax." I said, it coming out as a winded snort. Her eyes flashed in pure rage. I coughed. "I'm not letting you up unless you do." She resisted for another minute, and then lay still. She watched me with suspicious, almost glowing emerald eyes. I took my first real good look at her, and liked what I saw. She was tall and trim, modest in all directions in accord with size, but every inch of it was perfection of form. Flesh wise, only her hands and face were visible. Her hands were long fingered and artistic, but used to hard, physical work and were covered in scars. Her face was approximately the definition of beauty, flawless and smooth, a light pattern of freckles splashed across the bridge of her nose. The nose itself was straight and had a slight upward angle at the rounded tip. Three small silver rings wrapped around the bottom of her left ear, a single gold one in the lobe of her right. Her hair was black and drawn back into a ponytail meant simply to keep it out of her way, except for a few strands of hair which hung down over her flustered, exquisite face.

"I suggest you get off of me." Her voice tried to stay level, but an edge cut through. I was on top of her, but in no way that would have communicated harassment of a sort. Then, as it often tends to go, my luck asserted itself, and there was a loud, clearly furious roar off to my left. The woman was smiling, and I rolled quickly away as a large, pissed blue form burst from the trees, jaws snapping with cracks like exploding Voltorb. I dove into a thicket of denser brush, and it tangled the pursuing Feraligator long enough to toss out my freshly evolved Jolteon.

"Stun it!" I yelled as she bounced out and bristled at the foaming monster. Its fur jiggled like it was being swept by a wind, and bolts of electricity jumped into the gator, paralyzing muscle groups and bringing it, eye swiveling in rage, to a halt. I returned my attention to the woman, who was glaring at me with a hint of puzzlement.

"You didn't kill him?" She asked, obviously perplexed.

"No. Is that a problem? If it is, it can be easily rectified." This seemed to confuse her more, and her eyes narrowed in response.

"Who are you?" I straightened my over shirt with a officious manner, and drew out my pokedex, popping it open to reveal the small golden insignia featuring a Charizard, Venasaur, and Blastoise that was for some reason beyond my comprehension chosen as the lodge symbol for the Rangers.

"Name's Richard, and I am a Lieutenant in the Pokerangers, Kanto Division." She seemed surprised, and then called out the phrase we were all taught was secure, and special to us. A chip of lyric from a Coheed and Cambria song, if I recall correctly.

"Ignoring the words of your obnoxious little brother…" I shot the countersign back without missing a beat.

"Kill or be killed, spilled the words from your mother." She visibly relaxed, while just the opposite happened to me. My tone grew cold and I stiffened. "Where did you learn that?" I asked, eyes narrowed.

"It's a song. Besides, you're not the first of your kind to slip over the border, you know. For a while, your people were the force behind the resistance here." This did make sense. At least six rangers had attempted to get in, and at least six bodies had been dumped, mutilated back over to our side. It also matched that they would likely try to fuel uprising, so I eased back a little. She looked sad and muttered something under her breath about raids and murders. She focused back on me.

"If you're a Ranger, why are you dressed like a Perish Guard?" She asked. I looked at her like she was stupid.

"To blend in…?" The look she was giving made feel like I was missing something.

"You haven't been here long, have you? The punishment for mimicking a soldier is death, administered as they are caught. Soldier I.D.s are scrutinized much more heavily than civilian papers, and it is nearly impossible to pass a fake off as one successfully. I said nothing, but quickly stripped off the stolen clothing before replacing my own. Almost as an afterthought, I removed the insignia from the shoulder and slotted it in my pocket. Not sure why, maybe just a ridiculous valuing of metal things? I straightened out my kit, retrieved my cane, and then tossed a red syringe to the woman.

"Here's a paralyze heal for your friend there… Miss…" She was not, whether by choice or by inability, picking up my hint, so I rolled my hands over one another hoping to prompt her. She glared down at me with a look I would not refer to as disgust, but that might just be because I am an optimist. She sighed like I was testing her patience, and grudgingly replied.

"Catherine, but you can call me Casey." She turned to her gator, and spoke before applying the medication. "Ok, Rugen, don't eat this one unless I give you the direct order." I assumed that the word Rugen was the beast's name and that caught my attention and caused a little flag to go up.

"You named him Rugen?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said, helping the creature un-kinking muscles regain their proper shape.

"Why?"

"Because he has six fingers on his right hand." Now, I will say, I was always a tad skeptical of the whole "love at first sight" deal before I met this woman. But that one little phrase was like the fist of the Fons punching the jukebox that was my heart back to life. Whoa, I really butchered that metaphor, didn't I. Balls. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that this was when I first started falling in love with Miss Catherine Elizabeth Chambers.

"Does he also have a thing for suction pumps?" I replied, mostly to myself. She turned sharply, and looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time. There was always the slightest hint of condescension in her every mannerism that was kind of a turn on, but also made me feel like I was a little boy asking stupid questions again.

"You're familiar with the reference?" She asked. Now I got to have a turn giving her an incredulous look.

"What, me, familiar with possible the greatest love story of all time? A timeless tale of action, adventure, dread pirates, dueling, murder, and a rhyming giant? I am sorry madam, but you are mistaken." She glared at me as the gator lurched to its feet and shot eye daggers at me.

"Are you always this much of an asshole, or is this a recent development?" A poor retort, but I'll give it to her. I gave her a good hard examination before replying.

"I dunno, I never really paid any attention, although if you ask my mother, she'll say yes, emphatically. Anyway, it was lovely to meet, Miss Casey, but I must be off." I tipped my hat, and turned, walking away toward where I supposed the nearest town was located. I made it perhaps thirty feet before the rustle of leaves told me she was following, and she spoke tentatively.

"Wh… Where are you going?" I kept walking as I replied.

"Oh, nearest town, I guess. My plans aren't set in stone yet. Hey, I bet they have checkpoints at the gates with an infestation this large, right?"

"Yes, at all entrances they have checkpoints and the little flip gates, and double rows fencing bordering the entire burg. Impossible to enter without the best fake passports that are made."

"And I couldn't just get an authentic passport?" She gave me the look that said I was retarded again.

"Oh, sure, but you have to have a residence, and as you can imagine they do not take kindly to Rangers mucking around over here, eh?" She had a slight undercurrent of a British accent that was incredibly sexy.

"Granted, but, based on your abilities, and the way you assaulted me when I was dressed as one of them, I am willing bet there is quite the price on your head. I can hide the fact that I am a Ranger, and if I turn you in, that's got to be worth something now, doesn't it?" She was quick in realizing what I had said, and took up a defensive posture. "Jeez, relax. Do none of the women in these parts have a sense of humor, or are you the exception?" She did not change her posture, which told me a lot about the state of this country, but, playing my part, I shook my head in an exasperated manner and muttered something about women and crazy. "Whatever, woman, be that way. In my opinion, you are much to pretty to submit to torture anyway. You can do me one small favor, and tell me which of the towns entrances is farthest from their main garrison."

She remained wary, but told me the one I was closest to, the eastern entrance, was furthest from reinforcement.

"What are you going to do?" She resumed her tail, but a few paces further back than before.

"Oh, a grand display of force, completely lacking in subtlety. Should be a good show." Jolteon paced me at my side, and with a flick of my wrist, I cast out another ball, and Carracosta waddled along on my vacant side. I checked my compass and map to insure I was roughly following the road while in the forest embrace, and soon enough, the spore of a city was detectible. Casey was still following, without explaining why, and it was frustrating me that she was not speaking. Finally I swiveled around without warning, making her jump backward and reach for whatever armament she was carrying.

"Damn it, woman, why do you persist in your incessant trailing me? Do I have something you want? Are you waiting to knife me when I stop for a piss? Or are you that desperate for something to do that you follow around the first man to emasculate you in what I have to guess is quite a while?" A sharp, quick pained look followed by dead pan showed me that I had hit the nail dead on the head. I rubbed the back of my head in exasperation. "Argh, sorry, dear, like most of my undesirable traits, being an asshole at the critically wrong moments was passed down the line from my dear old dad."

"Do you extract all your comfort out of blaming your heredity?" She snapped back. I mulled it over.

"Why, yes. Can you think of a better way to excuse your bad behavior while still being proud of it?" She looked like I made a good rebuttal. "Look, really, I am sorry, let's try again, be friends." I held out my hand, and did my best to give her puppy eyes, but I have a feeling I looked like an idiot. She reached out and shook my hand.

"You look like an idiot when you make that face."

"Meh, you work with what you're given. Anyway, now that I have made an ass out of myself, what can I help you with, there must have been some reason you've been tailing me." She looked as if she was debating internally, and then sighed.

"Yes. Recently the administration cracked down on the rebellious faction inside the country, and as far as I know, I am the only one from our cell that managed to escape." She was dour, but perked up and looked up at me. My heart sunk, because I could see her wheels turning, and I was about to disappoint her. "Seeing as you're a Ranger, and your life is to protect the general populace, then you must be here to help." Here she trailed off a little, and seemed to talk to herself and me at the same time. "Unless, of course you have some psychic paper, and you're just pretending to be what I want most right now…" I snapped my fingers as a light dawned in my head.

"You're a plant!" I pointed a finger. She looked shocked/confused. "Yeah, makes perfect sense. You sweep in, dropping Princess Bride and Doctor Who references, being pretty as anyone can be, until you can figure out why I was here, and then BOOM, storm troopers up my ass and around the corner, eh?" She seemed disgusted by the mere thought of it.

"You're fucking crazy!"

"Oh, come now, I see through the act, and you can drop it…" *SLAP* She slapped me so hard it knocked my train of thought of the rails and onto my ass. Jolteon and Carracosta continued to sit by my sides, and I could have sworn that Jolts gave her a nod of approval.

"Well, a fat lot of good you two are, here I am, getting assaulted, and you do nothing. Oh well, no use crying over spilt chickens. So, where were we?" I asked Casey, returning conversation to her court.

"You're fucking crazy." The red in her cheeks was slowly fading, but the fire still glowed in her eyes. Nice.

"Granted. Ok, but it is weird, you have to admit. It was like you were made just for me to fall in…" I choked on the word. I still, to this day cannot throw the "L" word around casually. "… Attraction with you." She looked at me weird. Seriously, I was not joking. I literally choked on the word. "I mean, you're gorgeous, a deeper voice flecked with an English accent, glasses, small bust, and you know at least some Doctor Who. Pretty much perfect." She did not say anything, but I like to think she was flattered. Although I always like to think they are flattered. "Anyway, I don't know exactly what you think I am here for, but it's not that. I'm not really even officially sanctioned to be here. Kinda rouge, you know?" Her face fell and I experienced a most unwelcome little swoop in my gut, like a punch to the bottom of my heart. I welched a little. "Is there some specific thing you would expect me to be able to do?"

It was here turn to sigh.

"I… no, not really. I guess I just thought maybe we were getting some help, finally."

"Well, sorry, but that is not what I am here for. Thing is… I don't really know the lay of the land, or where I might find what I am looking for. I could use a person to show me the ropes around here. Also, I do tend to raise quite a bit of ire wherever I do go. Serious, throw me in a sandbox and I'll piss of a band of Trapinch. True story, by the way. Anyway, you would be more than welcome to tag along with me if you'd like." She didn't flat out reject the idea, but seemed wary and hesitant, and gave a non committal, barely coherent slurry of letters conjoined into a reply. I shrugged and continued my walk, and she remained behind me, pacing me.

(…)

I lay back on the bed of the medium level of fancy hotel bed, dry and warm in the robe that was in the bathroom. I had used Jolteon to blast the living hell out of the barricade, using Carracosta's Rain Dance to summon a plausible cover for the lightning strikes. It had gone straight to plan and we slipped in unnoticed in the chaos, and straight into this hotel, because its owner did not pry into others affairs. Casey stuck around, and had even had her Rugen help with the rain, and because I am a soft touch, offered to share the room with her. She was standing out the window, down into the central pool area of the hotel.

"So are you on like, wanted poster or something?" I asked her, as I flipped on the T.V. and began to scratch myself with much enthusiasm.

"No, not that I am aware of."

"Ah, then, make yourself at home, then. Safe enough here, and if you worry too much about what could happen, you die a lot sooner." She turned away from the window.

"Okay, then, I think I will sidle on down to the pool and get a few laps in before dark." The clouds had cleared, and the evening sun had reasserted itself, but on the horizon it looked as if a real storm was preparing to descend. "Care to join me?"

"Nah, I'm going to lounge around here for a while, give Europe a chance to relax and enjoy herself." In the outside town, I had quickly noticed that no one walked around with the Pokemon in the open, much as I expected in a police state. Europa, once given the chance to actually meet her, like Casey, and Europa never liked anyone. Really. She tolerated Mom and Crosspatch, kept a distance from Jormungand, and… Oh, scratch that, she did like Meridia. But then, of course, everyone liked Meridia. I don't think it is possible not to like Meridia. Anyway, she, like I am told her mother was, was addicted to the feel of carpet fiber on her scales. In the hour we had occupied this room, she had been grinding her body all over it, and making whuffing, happy noises all the time.

Casey shrugged, then walked into the restroom. A minute later she emerged, wearing only her bra, panties, and shoes. She looked slightly cross, and inhumanly alluring.

"Hey, they only gave us one robe, pass it over." I stood and removed it, never taking my eyes off her, not by choice, but because I was riveted. Her body was slim, trim but muscular, long arms and legs and a very nice profile. Her left side, from the line of her pant to the shoulder was a complete carpet of angry white scar tissue that continued to her wrist. She took the robe from me, then took offence.

"What the hell, you're fully clothed? Why the hell were you wearing the robe?"

"Because I couldn't figure out how to turn of the air-conditioning." She turned toward the door, putting on the robe, and I continued my thought, causing her to turn back. "You're the kind of beauty wars are fought over." She kept her expression neutral.

"Is that all?"

"For now, once enough blood gets back to my brain, I'll think up some more and write them down for you." She looked disgusted and left, leaving me with my thoughts of how a pretty girl like that gets that much scar tissue.

(…)

I headed down to the pool about 45 minutes later, after making Euro promise not open the door for anyone. Casey had finished swimming laps and was lounging in the adjoining hot tub, her head back and eyes closed. I slid in, trying not to disturb her, but I was apparently unsuccessful.

"So you decided to join me after all." She said, not opening her eyes.

"Well, yeah," I replied casually, "I finished that list and thought you'd like to hear it."

"Ok, I could do with a laugh."

"Alright, here we go." I consulted the paper I had brought down with me. "Okay. Are you by any chance related to a Helen of Troy? No, okay, that was actually the only other not completely disgusting one I had. The next on my list that is almost suitable just has me drooling." She looked up, but remained in her lounging position.

"Really, that's all? Nothing about the scars?" Her want to bring this out told me it had had been a problem area before.

"Well, now that you mention it," I decided, possibly for the first time in my life, to take the tactful approach, "I was wondering how you managed to have your full range of motion with coverage as complete as that." Her eyebrow arched and she fixed me with a piercing look. I gave her an accusatory one in return. "What? Having a couple scars does not affect the fact that you are the hottest piece of ass I have ever encountered. It's a hard world out there, and having that much scar tissue indicates you are either really, really clumsy, or took a close brush with death. And, having gotten my ass handed to me, I know you're not clumsy."

"You really think I care that much for vanity?"

"No, not at all. It's just the only other thing I could think of that might pissed you off was that you might not like my South Park jockey shorts, and frankly, I refuse to entertain that idea."

"Well, no need to worry over that. Sorry, don't mean to be bitchy, just still a little sore at no help is coming. It's been so long under these monsters, it's hard not to get your hopes up." I waved to someone, and they brought over a tray loaded with drinks, and for the next hour, I plied her with alcohol and questions until we actually started to enjoy ourselves. Right around the time sobriety was becoming a dimly remembered concept, we started "nerding out." We hit upon a lot of what outside views would describe as odd topics, and somehow arrived on the theme of love stories.

"What, in your opinion, is the greatest tragic love story of all time?" She quired. "Like, I say it's Romeo and Juliet."

"Easy," I replied casually, "that would The Doctor and Rose Tyler."

"Explain."

"Okay, if you look at Romeo and Juliet, they're whole thing is that their parents are strictly against their union, and that in a series of ill concived schemes, these two kids end up killing themselves. Bah, nothing to it.

But, take The Doctor. 900+ years old, time traveling genius and last of his species, living forever, almost incapable of death except by Dalek. He is, and will forever be alone, because he will literally outlive anyone her meet, save Jack Harkness, but that's a different kind of thing all together. The, one day, following a Plastic monster, her stumbles across this 19 year old earth girl, saves the day and offers to take her with him. Over the course of two series, her attempts to sacrifice himself for her several times, to allow her to live, and even actually gets killed doing it once. He strait tells her that he will not allow himself to love her, because she will get old and die while he has to continue to live, along with a loneliness that no one else, again save Jack Harkness, can imagine. And during the battle of Canary Warf, he sends her away so that she can live before he attempts to close the Rift. Of course, Rose is heedless of her own safety, cause she loves the Doctor. And here's what clinches it. He accepts her, and allows himself this, despite the consequences, knowing full well he will lose her and the pain it will bring. And something goes wrong and she is sucked toward the Void, only to be saved at the last minute by her alternate father and pulled back into the alternate world, locked away from him, with no means to ever return.

They win this contest by the sheer fact that the very forces of reality fight to keep them apart, and that the Doctor, in his pain, never gets to tell her he loves her then, as his final transmission is cut short. She knows, but it just hurts so bad that he never got the words out in time." I wiped away a tear "Sorry, it still gets me, even going over it." She seemed cowed, but only for a second.

"A good example, but I still say Romeo and Juliet win because it set a template for a whole genre and inspired countless other works. But I do like you're point, and it's one of my favorites as well.

Yhe rest of the night continued along these lines, until neither of us could stay awake long enough to have comlete thoughts, and we retired, no thoughts looking toward the next day.


	10. Truth

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#10: Trust**

I awoke with the extremely satisfying feeling of a warm body curled up against my own. Judging by the size and velvety feel of said body, and the fact that I was not being crushed, that said body belonged to Casey, as I had no recollection of meeting anyone else I would invite back to my room under the light haze the Alcohol had provided. If it had been Europa, the crushing I mentioned would be taking place. She likes to cuddle from the top, in pile form. I disentangled myself with exceptional care, not wanting to make her, and then found myself just watching her sleep. We were both in our short clothes, her with the addition of one of my own T-shirts, (and something about that made it all the hotter,) and I had no doubt as to the fact that their had been no intercourse the previous night. I was not bothered by this. She was curled up in a near fetal position, and uncurled softly as if in search of the extra heat my body had offered, but she did not wake. She was sleeping the sleep of someone who had not had a safe place to do so in a long time. She was drooling slightly, and I even liked that.

Casey expanded a bit further, still asleep, her right arm drooping over the mattress, her head facing away from the door and leaving her laying on her stomach, her back uncovered and toward me.. I looked it over, and beneath the straps of her bra were several slightly faded red scars crisscrossing over the white flesh. A knot of sickness and anger solidified in my gut. I recognized the marks, hell, I had two matching marks on my own. Ol' Crosspatch was a stickler for disciple, and being family didn't get you any quarter. I gently ran a finger over one of the raised welts. She did not stir and I lay my palm open on her back, feeling her deep, calm breathing. I don't know what she had done, but she got one hell of a flogging. The marks it leaves on your skin are nothing to the marks they leave in your mind, and I have to wonder what lesson it was that she had to be taught so forcefully.

Europa, laying on the floor next to the bed, looked up with a snap a second before there was a sharp rapping at the hotel door. I waved her quiet, and I covered Casey more securely with the sheet and quickly moved over and opened the door enough that whoever was there would see that he needed to be quiet, as Casey was sleeping. What met my eye was a tall, officious looking man in a uniform. I put my finger to my lips, motioning for quiet and pointing at Casey, then I moved into the hallway to accommodate him, leaving to door open.

"Sorry, but the Missus had a bit much to drink last night, and I don't want to wake her. What can I do you for?" The Pips on his shoulders denoted him as a Lieutenant, and Casey had filled me in on some recent history of the region, so I was confident that I could handle it. She had Told me that we were in New Bark Town, closest town to the border, and thus heavily fortified against invasion by the Kantonese. Once Franklin Perish took power, he pushed a wave of nationalism that swept through the land, holding mass executions of citizens of Kanto, as well as an embargo of all goods and even the blocking of import of Non native species of Pokemon. By making his platform on of patriotism, he managed to not only hold power, but a large degree of popular support as well.

"Good Morning. Early last evening, there was an attack by a Kanto Assault Scout on our Eastern Barricade, and it is believed that this man entered the city in the company of fugitive female. The Boarder guard who was wounded in the attempt to stop the interloper relates that his assailent was a man with dark hair, carried a cane, and was accompanied by a dragon with black scales. Have you noticed anything amiss?"

I made a note to kill any witnesses next time, and seemed to think about it.

"Not other than that odd rain fall yesterday. Is the soldier going to be ok?" The lieutenant nodded.

"Yes, he took a good hit, but heshould recover nicely. If you do notice anything, please let a member of the Guard know. The people are to be presumed armed and dangerous, so I ask that you try nothing if you do encounter them. Thank you for you're time."

"Oh, think nothing of it. Thank you for the heads up, I'll keep my eyes peeled." He nodded again and turned away, moving to the next door. I re-entered the room and locked the door. Something about the exchange was bothering me, but I couldn't Identify what, so I started fixing up breakfast.

(…)

Casey awoke as I finished cooking, and I tolde her of the exchange while we ate. I happen to be looking out the window after the meal was done when I noticed something. A pair with luggage hurrying away. As they moved away, A pair of soldiers with their crossbows draw moved aside to let them pass. I stood up and got a better look. Six other soldiers, arrayed in a way that would, if continued, would encircle the building. 4 other people were leaving the Hotel with their kit, hurrying through the falling rain.

"Casey…" I said, watching more people fleeing.

"What?" She asked, yawning.

"Get dressed and ready, I think we've been made." I have to say, I really do like her. She didn't ask anything, or say anything, but was up and moving efficiently. 3 minutes later she was dressed, packed, and ready to move. She was faster than I was. I strapped my cane to my pack and recalled Europa, opened the door slowly, and peeked out. The hall was empty, several doors open. I checked the two closest, and both were evacuated.

"Shit, that bastard new it was us the whole time. Ah ha, that's what was bugging me. He didn't ask for I.D., or papers, or anything. He was trying to get us to not notice anything was up before the evac was complete and they had us hemmed in. Let's try the back door is a viable option."

We took the stairs, me on point, Casey covering, and made it to the lobby unimpeded. As I moved toward the glass door to check the situation through the rain fogged glass, the window in the door exploded. A heavy bolt whooshed through the air in front of my face, making me drop to the floor. Casey spun behind the manager's desk, and I crawled on my stomach to join her as a volley of bolts shattered more glass and thunked into the lobby's rear wall. Wind blew water into the building though the busted windows. Outside it was raining hard, and a light fog had flowed in, better cover than I could have hoped for. I sat up next to Casey, who was looking worriedly over the counter. I peeked to, and formed my plan. I droped out one of my Pokeballs, and Jolteon stretched and nuzzled my leg.

"Alright," I said, looking over at Casey, "it's time to shit or get of the pot." She looked down at me with a quizzical look. I turned to face her. "I am going to level with you." I placed a hand on her shoulder. "I like you, Casey, a lot. I am going to get out there and raise some serious hell, for as long as I can. I would like it if you wanted to join me. Even if you don't, I will still get you out of this mess, not strings attached." I looked up into her eyes to hammer home the point I was trying to make. "But, I don't really know you. So I am going to ask you, now, if I can trust you. I need to know that you are not going to slit my through in the night at some point. I need to know that I am not just going to wake up one day and find you gone without a trace, never to return. If you were to want to leave, I want you to let me know. If you want to travel with me, I need you to promise me this." She looked at me, clearly thinking this through

"if you don't know if you can trust me, how can you accept my promise?"

"Because I chose to. I am giving you this chance, and I will believe you, what ever you answer. If you chose not to, I will still excort you out of here, no hard feelings, and part once we are clear, friendly aquaintences." She thought for a moment again.

"I promise I will not do any of the things you asked me not to do, and I will not simply disappear of my own free will without telling you my intent to do so." I smiled at her, happy at her choice.

"Alright, then, lets blow this joint." I told Jolteon what to do.

She walked into the growing pool of water from the broken doors, and I opened my pack and withdrew a sheet of thin rubber, unrolled it, then stepped onto it, pulling Casey along. I told Jolteon to hit it. She barked once and her fur began to ripple as if caught in a high wind. There was a bright flash, and she began to pump hundreds of volts directly into the puddle at her feet. The electricity, conducted through the water, flowed out and around the hotel, roasting the people outside. As she finished, I recalled her, then rolled back up the rubber mat, and secured it in my pack. I motioned for Casey to follow, and we dashed out, heads low in the pounding rain, past the smoking corpses of the guards.

(…)

I woke up after camping out in the wet field the next day, to find Casey crouching a few feet away. I looked up at her and wondered why she looked so grim.

"'s amatter." I grumbled, sitting up yawning. She stared at me in a way that set me on alert. "Casey… What is wrong." She looked pained.

"I've… I'm made a decision." I arched an Eyebrow and allowed her to continue in her own time. "I Don't want to live like this anymore. Last night was the first time I have been back in a city in over a year. I can't do this living in the wood shit anymore."

"Okay," I said, "so lets work our way back over the border. I'll set you up out in the safari zne for as long as you like."

"It's not just that. I can't just leave my country while it's like this. I've been thinking about it for a while now, how I can get back in with my countrymen. I know how, now."

"Oh, balls, you have to be shiting me. Serious?" I quickly ascertained that my weapons and Poke balls were missing.

"I did not realize it until this morning. You are a real live Ranger, from Kanto, invading our country. Now that I know that they are actively looking for me, as well, I don't know that I can stay hidden anymore." Now she looked up and met my eyes for the first time. They held no malice, only shame, fear, sadness, and weariness. If I was not so pissed I would have sympathized with her. "I am going to hand you over, and see if I can get re-instated into the Perish Guard. I thought a lot about this last night, and it doesn't really violate any of the conditions you laid out for me. I am telling you, and giving you a choice on whether to come with me or not." She stood up, and all of her emotion wiped from her face and her voice became neutral, as she was now simply relating facts. "I know you can tell that I have taken all of your weapons and pokeballs. You do not have to come voluntarily, but if you chose to resist, I will put forward my best effort to subdue you." I tried to think, but I was seething with so much rage that clear thought was unable to make itself heard.

5 Minutes later, she was leading me bruised and bound through the forest to a place she called Cherrygrove. At the entry blockade, she shared some words with the guards, a little black bag was thrown over my head, and then they threw, literally fucking threw me in a cell.

Inside was plain concrete with bars, a bed with a metal frame and just the mattress, bolted to the floor, and a toilet. At least it had a seat. I sat in there for a week, interrogations every day, and fed false information based on real information. You'd be surprised how easily they would believe someone they killed was not who they actually killed. During that week, I though of 204 parting phrases I wished I had said to Casey and damn it all if I was not more hurt by what she did than angry. Luckily, depression doesn't suit me well, although I did get a rather lot of sleep.

It was on the 8th day after I had been imprisoned, they brought in another man. He was trim, straight backed and sandy blond. After the guard locked the door and left, he turned to me.

"So, what are you in for?" I had my back against out adjacent wall, staring into space, wishing I had a book. I grunted.

"Bitches." He chucled approvingly.

"I hear you there. S'why I swore off of 'em."

"Hm, so you're a poofter? That enough to get you thrown in here?"

"Pfft, no. But if you are the secretary and mistress of a prominent officer and get caught selling classified information, you can get thrown in here. Name's Vinn, by the way. Alexander Vinn."

"Pleasure to know ya, Vinn. You can call me Richard…er screw it, Richard Voy, Kanto PokeRanger."

"Oh, really? Then are you the one that caused all that commotion in New Bark a while back."

"I don't know, I've been in here. Not a lot of news."

Over the next couple of days, me and Vinn became fairly well acquainted. He just so happened have a belt, the exact implement I could use to escape. It took three days of both of us sharpening it on the concrete between interrogations to get the buckle lock sharp enough for my purposes. We had shared what we knew, and were giving matching reports to the guards, and it was really making them amp up their efforts in pressing info out of us. Then, the night it was ready, I asked he he was ready.

"Hey, Vinn, you ready to blow this joint?"

"Oh, my, yes."

"Not like that! God. I mean, read to up and get the hell out of here?"

"Indeed. You need to get your head out of the gutter."

"Whatever. Anyway, I don't think that I can be content with merely taking off. I had something a little more incendiary in mind."

"Oh really. Like what?"

"Burn the fucker down. Now, in three minutes, however you count them, call for help.."

He agreed, and I took the now fairly sharp point from the belts buckle, and slashed quickly across my forehead. Ugh, I have zero tolerance for pain. Ok, the thing about wounds to the forehead are that they bleed, a lot. But the wound only has to be superficial. Apparently this is an old wrestling trick used in making the fights more exciting. I then painted the area around the bed with my blood, trying for the affect that would have followed had I slashed my wrist and then flailed about. I then plastered a piece of torn mattress over it to keep the blood out of my eyes, and curled into a fetal position facing away from the cell door, the point of the belt held tight along my index finger. A few seconds later Vinn began making a racket in a high panicked voice. I heard the outer door open, and the guard yell for quiet.

"Shut up! Hey, you, fairy, I said quiet… what the hell happened in here!" A key in the lock, then the creak of the door. A hand grabbed my upright shoulder and flipped me, and using the momentum, I drove the point of the belt into his eye. His scream echoed around the cell as he clawed the device out and backed away. I pulled him down and proceded to stomp his head in with my heel until the noise stopped.

A quick examination yielded a heavy baton and the keys. Acting quickly I unclipped the keys and threw them through the bars of Vinn's cell, before running outside of the door the dead guard had left open. The only thing in the adjacent room was a wooden desk, an old pornographic magazine laying open on the top, with an attractive naked woman laying up against a glaring Persian. I rummaged quickly through the two drawers and came up with a metal fork and butter knife. Not ideal, but serviceable. I threw my back up against the wall next to the door out of the block just before I heard someone shout.

"Hey, freeze!" There was a snap, followed by a single bolt sailing through the door and clacking off the rear wall of the cell room. I had the fork ready in my right hand, and timed it by the boot steps coming closer until I judged the man to be right on the other side of the door. I swung the arm out, tines first, and clothes-lined the running man, burying the fork through his throat and into his cervical vertebrae. I grabbed his crossbow and handed tossed it to Vinn, who deftly rearmed it, and I left him direct me, as he had a better knowledge of how instillations were built in this region.

By some miracle, we managed to make it an armory undetected. For another stroke of luck, there was a lockup right next door, where I was able to reunite with my cane, pokemon, and my knives. Now, I am not knocking the other knives I lifted, but only an experienced person can really know the difference from using stock knifes and the ones they personally craft for themselves, but it's like the difference between using your hand bare, and your hand in a thick glove. This equipped, we began working our way toward the exit, needing to nutrilized a few threats along the way. Suddenly we found a door marked as a quarantine area, further reading "Authorized people only, do not enter, mind reader."

"Why can't the mind reader enter?" I asked to myself.

"Hell if I know. Maybe it's a giant cell phone and will give him super cancer?" Vinn answered.

"I don't know. Think this merits closer inspection?" Vinn nodded his approval, and we pushed into the room.

It was a giant white cube, bisected by a clear plastic wall. On the other side was a single bed, and what appeared to be a woman with reddish brown hair. She recoiled as we moved closer, whimpering. She looked slightly sick, and had obvious signs of mistreatment, but was still quite pretty. A small flame of anger swelled inside me, and she fliched.

"Please… no more…" He voice was weak and fearful and my anger burned stronger. She curled into a ball and cowered. "Please, I don't know what I did, don't hurt me…" Vinn looked over at me, then whispered.

"Hey, she must be the mind reader. She can see that you want to hurt her." I had to imagine I looked pretty mad for him to guess this, and it snapped my rage clean out. Puzzlement took its place. At this she looked up, a few tear tracks running down her face.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you. You can read minds?" She shook her head slowly, cautiously, like she expected my to get angry.

"No. I can feel stuff. Your friends anxiety, your anger, your slight…lust." She shied away from that last word, and I don't think it was because she did not wish to embarrass me. This caused the anger to well again, as I knew what she was, and the thought of abusing someone with this …I wouldn't say skill, or talent, maybe power?... was so horrible a thought it was almost physical. It struck her almost as if it was, and she cowered again, with her hands over her head. I tried hard and pulsed calm, peaceful thoughts out.

"Sorry, dear. That wasn't anger at you, but at these animals. I can't imagine how bad it's been for you." She looked up, her eyes leaking fresh tears. "You're an Empath, aren't you, sweetheart?"

"What is an Empath?" Vinn asked, and I could tell she was clueless as well.

"I read about it in some medical rag or another. It's a special type of person who has such natural Empathy; they can literally feel the emotions of those around them. It was believed that these types of people are the source of the tales of psychics that have always been around." I turned back to the girl. "That's it, isn't it? You can tell how we feel, right?" She nodded. An Idea entered me then, and I could tell she could feel it.

"Listen, sweetie, I know you don't know me, and have no reason to trust me. But I have big plans for this region after the way I have been treated. I am not going to lie, I would have limitless use for someone of your abilities in it. To the point where I can almost guarantee I would eventually abuse it. I would like it if you wanted on board. I don't have time to cover it now, but it is basically throwing these bastards out and getting some more, less fanatical ones in. But if you want to come with us, you're with us, because I can't afford to take someone who's not. To much to lose right now. But if you decline… you can fight? Good. If you decline, I will release you from here, and allow you to go your own way. But, I need to know now." She looked at me as if she was trying to actually read my mind. Her eyes were a glittering, icy light blue that seemed to Peirce me.

"If you tried to abuse me, would I have any recourse?" She must have got confused with the rush of amusement that flooded me.

"I like you already. Hon, if I step to far out of line, I hereby give you express permission to put me in my place. Vinn, you are my witness here, and are to enact, by whatever force necessary to get me to comply. At such a time as it become safe to the structure I am going to attempt to create to release miss… um, what's your name, sweetheart, I have a feeling I am seeming a bit condicending here…"

"Aurora, Aurora Frost. But I prefer Snow." She could feel as well as see the giggle I tried to suppress, and gave me the universally female glare that tells a man to grow up.

"That it is same to release Miss Snow here form conscripted service, that she is allowed to sever all ties to us and take her leave with all allotments she has earned/won during the time in our company, with no malice or hard feelings on behalf of anyone. Or, if she elects, she my voluntarily join with us as a full member in standing, rather than ward. Suit you, Snow?" She nodded.

"I shall accompany you, then. May we go and find my stuff, then…"

"Vinn."

"Richard."

We released her. She was even prettier up close, and short, about 5 foot 4. We retraced out path to the storage, and she retrieved a pack and a single pokeball, which she cast out, revealing a giant slab of rock. The Gigilith rose on it's pillar legs, and I'll be damned it it didn't bend down and nuzzle against her face. It wasn't an average Gigilith, either, but one of dark purple stone body, and embedded gems that matched the color of Snow's eyes. Tossing out Europa, and joined by Vinn's Nidorino and Nidorina, we fell in behind the towering boulder and proceeded to destroy anything that our combined power could smash.

Once clear of the building, Snow had the Gigilith hit the whole thing with an earthquake that snapped support beams like roothpicks, and we ran, three new friends, into the dense trees, and a new plan for the future.


	11. Johto Rangers

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#11: The Johto Rangers**

**Sorry about the last one. Worked on it in several different times with long spaces in between updates. Plus, just wanted to get to here.**

I was sitting in my throne, overlooking what I liked to call the Parade Ground. What can I say, even with the shitty state of the world, men just like soldiering stuff. After we bailed from Cherrygrove, we scuttled through the woods until we hit a mountain. There we camped at the foot of range of small hills. I don't want to go into the details, but we managed to secure the assistance of a pack of ground type pokemon led by a released Excadrill. With their help, we hollowed out one of the hills and built our own little fortress inside. It's pretty amazing, watching the Excadrill, it could cut through solid rock like it was nothing. It carved me this seat, and we had a living arrangement worked out well. We protect them from outside influence and grow enough food for both of us; they build us caves and allow us to live in their mountains.

Our compound had this big room, with a cafeteria, an open air garden near the top of the mountain, but still underground, male and female dormitory (although mixing was incouraged, officers quarters (six total rooms, with one for me, Vinn, and Snow, as were all that was needed with a group this small,) and we had even managed to install some basic plumbing. Oh, and a holding area with two cells, both with crude barred doors. The entrance was in the back of a cave that a particularly surly Venasuar made it's home in, so we did not have to worry about accidently being discovered. I had managed to catch and gain the friendship of a Chickorita pretty quickly, so I am kind of stoked about that. We had recruited about 2 dozen members, and I had even gotten ratification to for a sister branch of the Rangers here in Johto. I choose the badge to represent the region, with a Meganium, Feraligator, and Typhlosion. We finally got a semi permanent lighting grid installed just a few days prior, when one of the prize teams managed to lift an electric generator that could be recharged by electric types. I had Jolteon blast it for about 15 minutes, and we had power for around six hours. Rotating a team of 4, we could charge it for up to 24 hours at a time.

So, to brag a bit, in just three months we have created an efficient, hidden, completely secure, self sufficient Ranger stronghold with electricity and enough pluming for toiletry and, if you had a fire type, a hot shower.

I breathed the smell of the dark earth deep soil and sighed contentedly.

"I know what you're thinking, Vinn." He looked up from the tablet he was holding, the data flowing over it lighting his… effeminate face from below. He arched an eyebrow. "And I have to say that I am sorry, but it's just not going to work between us. I know how bad you want me, but I just can see it, I'm going to be stuck liking the broads, it seems."

"Ass." He said, his tone bitchy, but playfully so. "Better get your head out of your ass, Snow just got back with the next batch.

"Aw…" I said, sighing sadly, "but it's so warm up there. Oh well, by your leave, sir. And send the little wench up here; I want her read on them." He stood of the padded chair we had lifted from… somewhere. With prize teams going out at every opportunity due to the bonuses offered for certain high desirability items, like mattresses and insulated wiring, it was hard to remember where a lot of it came from. Europa, laying in a patch of carpeting I had tore up from some house that was clearly occupied by a prominent Perish Guard Officer, looked up from her post in the recessed space directly behind my chair. I killed a majority of the lights, leaving the ones above me and pointed outward on, so that my raised section of room was dark to anyone down bellow. I returned to the chair and waited. The group would come in near the opposite wall, on the left, form the labyrinth and entrance. The benefit of having allied with a pack of wild diglett is that they dig for the sheer joy of it, and changed the maze of passages daily. One was always on hand to lead a ranger through, though. Across the room from this hall was the hall that led to the commissary and dormitories, while one on the same wall but opening on the raised floor behind the line of my chair led to the cells and out rooms.

A minute later, Snow entered, walked briskly up, hopped over the step, grabbed the ass pad from the chair, placed it on the flat armrest on the right side of my chair, and settled herself in that perch. He drew her right leg up and laid the left one across my lap.

"Comfy?" I asked, trying to lace my voice with disdain. Funny note. You can't bluff against an Empath. They can see right through it, and Snow didn't even need to read body cues, she could literally feel the emotions coming from others.

"Quite." She said in a dead monotone. Whether it was a response to the increased sensitivity to emotion, or a byproduct of her time spent a captive, Snow showed almost no emotion herself. She cleaned up well, but was merely pretty, except in the exceptionally rare times when a smile lit her face. The she was straight beautiful. She did have a peculiarity, as she had a scar, shaped like a giant upside down question mark, starting the hook between her shoulder blades, curving all the way around her side, and ending in a straight line, her navel looking like the point at the base. She was a capable fighter, on par with that bi… ahem. On par with Catherine Chambers, in my opinion, with the added benefit of being able to read the opponent.

Once this haven had been made so that I could, with the help of the wild pokemon, secure it, I turned both Vinn and Snow loose, paying them for their time spent (stolen money, of course) and releasing any obligations they had to me. I gave them the option of leaving, or joining me, voluntarily and as equals, in founding the Johto chapter of the Rangers. Both agreed, and we formed it. They forced me to retain the role of Commandant, even though I tried to ditch the responsibility. Vinn, who really is the perfect secretary, handles most things involving supplies, watches, assignments, that administrative crap. Snow is officially my chief advisor, and by that I mean that anything I do has to go by her before it is enacted, and that I don't make a decision without her. It works well so far, and Vinn only tried to harm me once, but in his defense, I did eat all of his beef jerky. It's like crack to him.

Vinn entered, speaking, and a line of about ten people entered followed by another two of my people, crossbows drawn, but aim relaxed. All ten of the people being led were linked together with a light rope attached to the waist of their pants, and had a black cloth bag over their heads. We had no great fear of being made, but it never did ant harm to err on the side of caution. Vinn stood with his back to me, and facing the line of people. Behind me, Europa made a snuffling sound, and then began to sniff in deep, searching breaths.

"Remove the bags, please." The two men raised their bows and covered the people as they reached up, pulled loose the draw string, and removed their coverings. Europa growled a deep, threatening note that piqued my interest. Snow gave me a raised eyebrow, for while she did not understand the sound for what it was like I did, she could catch the feeling of menace she was feeling.

Let me digress here for a minute. No one, not even the guy who invented them, truly understands how and why a pokeball works. I mean, theory's have been proposed, and one that seems to make sense is that the pokemon are enveloped in an packet of energy and stored in a different dimensional plane, and that the ball itself just works as kind of a gate. But something that no one can even begin to guess at, is why this same pokemon is not completely unaware of it surroundings while encased. A pokemon, somehow, is able to know what is going on around it while it is inside. This is proved by how during a battle, it comes out fully ready to fight, or when you are just letting it out because you want to see it, it is calm and tame.

Europa's growl rose. Not in volume or pitch, but in height. She had stood up, and a feew seconds later her head appeared out of the gloom by Snows head, and as her eyes moved around the room, she began to hiss. I was still looking at her quizzically, when Snow moved in her liquid speed drawing and aiming small, hand sized bow and aiming it at the left end of the line.

"What's with you women today?" I asked. Snow did not look down, but answered. While Europa's head was in the light, we were still bathed in shadows, no more that a blob to those below.

"While all of those below showed a general increase in nervousness, but the lady on the left showed full alarm, mixed with recognition and shame." I looked over at this person, and then Snow's head snapped to look at me.

"What is it?" She asked, as a cold rage had ignited inside me at the sight of this woman. It was Catherine. Europa's hiss grew louder, more reptilian.

"Give me the files."

"Who is this? Why do you and Europa react so strongly?"

"Give me, the files."

"I don't have them." Vinn continued giving his speech while this was going on, telling the newcomers what they were in for, that a ranger must be able to rely on his or her own skill, that the days of on relying on the strength of their partner pokemon to do everything were over. Europa's hissing was audible, but our conversation was not.

"Damn it Snow." I pulled, with effort, away form the rage, and focused on calming my heart rate. "I ought to trade you in for a dog, and then shoot the dog. Why don't you have the files?"

"Because I want you to answer me." I saw something dart through her eyes, but it was to small and fast for me to guess at what it was. "that surge of feeling you just had was isentical to the one she," she hooked her thumb at Europa, who was rooted to the spot only because I had not released her to butcher the offending presence, "is feeling right now. I have never seen that before. Only difference is that hers is a magnitude stronger than yours was."

"That is because she does not have the constraints of a rationalizing mind with which to filter and dilute her emotions and motivations." I sighed, back under control, and scratched with my free hand. "That woman down there, is one Catherine Elizabeth Chambers, and if I were to take my guess, is a… oh, lets just say intelligence agent for the Perish Guard, her assignment most likely to infiltrate and disseminate information on our illicit activities." She gave a dry chuckle, but her body stiffened slightly.

"Yeah, and how could you possibly have worked that out." I sighed again.

"Remember when we met?" All trace of joviality, what litte there was, anyway, wiped instantly, and she nodded somberly. Truth is, I think she has a bit of the Nightingale syndrome going for me, so I never made a move. I will not have a woman for anything less that her wanting me legitimately. My self-respect won't stand for it otherwise. "That's the butch that put me there, in order to get back into the Guards good books." She stiffened more.

"Can you prove it's her?"

"Yeah, she's got a Feraligator, named Rugen, because it's got six fingers on it's right hand."

"Vinn!" She called sharply, and he broke of in mid sentence and stepped back to us. She whispered something in his ear and he nodded and returned to his place in front of those arrayed.

"You, on the end." He pointed at Casey.

"Yes?" He voice was worried, but not shakey.

"Do you have a pokemon partner?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"A male Feraligator."

"Does he have a special name?"

"Yes, I call him Rugen."

"Pray tell, why?"

"Because he has six fingers on his right hand."

"Let me have her." It was a command, rather that a question, and Snow sta rigidly, eyes locked on Casey. I thought about it.

"Ok, I think I could enjoy that."

"Oh," There was a note of relish in her voice, "I am going to gut that bitch like a Magikarp." She jumped up and drew her knife while still in the air.

"No." it was my bemusement that paused her, rather than the word. "Non leathal only. I want to simply beat her down. We'll write it off as a initiation test, let her in, then see what we can get out of her. Hit the lights. Vinn!" He sighed and came back up.

"We are gonna have a little contest of skill. Snow is going to be fighting miss Chambers down there.

"You mean Snow is going to kill Miss Chambers down there, don't you?" I clapped him on the shoulder.

"Nope, non-leathal. Although I would not place bets on it. Grabe a pair of rubber batons, and fetch me this groups files." The house lights came up and showed me, shaking my head and sighing, Europa hissing and, don't ask me how, bristling. Casey looked up, saw me, and I didn't need Snow to tell me she realized she was in deep shit.

**End Eight**

**Making it a two parter because… I can?**


	12. Snow

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#12: Snow**

_**IMPORTANT!**_** The next TWO chapters, at the very least, are told from Snow's Eyes. In order to tell the part of the story as I wish it to unfold, I need to jump into Snow's mind to get the details know. If you like this, let me know, if not… well, you are more than welcome to tell me then, too. So, Remember, Snow is now narrating the story.**

_**WARNING!**_** This is some of, in my opinion, that darkest, most despicable stuff I have written. So travel with caution.**

I wrapped a layer of gauze around each of my hands, then taped it down, not to add a cushioning affect, but because I wanted a minute to think about how I was going to play the fight. Vinn was explaining the necessity of the exercise to the other woman across the room, and ended when he handed her a rubber baton that was slightly over a foot in length. I decided I would pull no punches, but still stretch it out for as long as I felt comfortable doing so. I did not like the rage that Richard had felt at the sight of the woman.

There are two types rage that I have seen; cold and hot. Hot rage is the kind you get on the road, or in other frustrating situations. It burns intensely, but burns itself out fairly quickly. Cold rage, however, burns just as hot, but does not fade or dilute. It's the kind of anger that leads to bad things, stupid moves, sad mistakes. So I would make the butch suffer. I grabbed a matching baton, and moved along the edge of the raised section of floor until I stood with my Back to Richard and Vinn, who had just joined them. I could still feel the lingering anger, even though he spoke merrily.

"So, Vinn, you're not to gay to enjoy the sight of two beautiful women beating the ever loving shit out of each other for my amusement, are you?" He said it quietly so that it did not carry to the circle of excited people. I could not tune out their emotions completely, but I could reduce the effect by focusing my attention on the other woman. Vinn grunted, and yelled "start!"

I stepped lightly into the arena and closed slightly, baton held ready, but still relaxed, and we began to circle. She was less at ease than I, and I could tell it by her posture alone.

"I suppose I should thank you." I said, in a slow, dangerous voice. A spike of curiosity flared inside her.

"For what?" Her voice was steadier than her emotion.

"For betraying the boss." A spike of shame and guilt. Hmm. No attempt at suppression. "If you had not traded his life for your freedom, I would very likely still be a plaything for the Perish Guard. There for them to rape or torture when they got bored, or try to get me to read the intent in peoples minds like I were some type of magic machine that only worked right if I were abused enough." There was such an explosion of disgust from her at this point that I felt it as a semi-physical wave that caused me a second of pause. I resumed circling as she regained her composure. "Had he not been locked up, I might never had been freed. So I assure you, I have no personal malice with this. I bear no grudge, and were it my call, I would simply have you killed. But, unfortunately, the boss bears a grudge for your actions, and thus has chosen not to have you killed." She thought for a moment.

"How is not having me killed a bad thing?" She was nervous and confused, but not afraid. I think I might have liked her had the situation been different.

"Because that means that _I_ get you." As the last word fell from my mouth I darted forward, brought my baton to the floor and rose with a vicious backhand that struck the right side under her jaw and sending her reeling backward. As I came down I spun backward while moving forward, bringing a second horizontal chop directly to the right side of her bottommost rib. The batons we were using were not heavy enough to break the bones when wielded with the strength we could bring to bear, but would leave nasty bruises wherever they struck. She fell to her knees, gasping in pain and clasping her rib and jaw.

"And while I bear you no grudge on my behalf, I do bear his anger and my own on his behalf." I darted in again, aiming for the side of her head to stun her, but she bent backward as I swung, rolling onto her shoulders before twirling, leg spread and kicking me in the side of my own head with enough force to make my eyes blur for a second and knock me face forward into the dirt. So she was going to fight back. Good. I started to push myself up when he foot caught me in the side and the force of the kick knocked the wind out of me and flipped me onto my back. I continued rolling until I was a good distance away, and then bounced to my feet. She was already on top of me, and threw a downward slam that I avoided taking in the face by moving sideways, catching it on the left shoulder. As the baton forced it down, I cocked back my right hand and smashed my fist into her jaw, sending her reeling. I followed with backhanded slash with the baton that spun her around and dumped her face down.

She rose back to her feet slowly, spitting out a bit of blood from her busted lip. We continued to trade blows, back and forth for another excruciatingly long 10 minutes, until neither of us was standing steadily any longer. I looked over at Richard, one eye swollen almost shut, to see if I had give her enough. He looked at his Haxorus, then back at me, giving me a slight nod. I gave Vinn the kill signal, and he broke up the ring while I mounted the raised floor and walked to Richard. He was talking to one of the other members, who was nodding, before he walked over and recruited another, and the two of them led Catherine into the hallway that led to our quarters.

"You okay Snow?" I coughed a little, embarrassed by the concern that was wafting off of him. I had tried to show no sign of weakness to him ever since that shameful display I had put on when I was still being held in Cherrygrove.

"Of course. No need to worry about me, boss." He huffed.

"No need my ass. I know what's it's like to get worked over by that one." There was a bitter tang in his mind that didn't travel with the words. I would have liked to ask the story behind it. "Go check with the Doc, clean up a bit, that meet me in detention. I'm going to host me a good ol' fashion interrogation." The was something, a feeling he suppressed to quickly for me to get a good read on, but it caused me no small amount of concern. I hastened to the Doctor, and he gave me just a light once over, assuring himself that I had not been concussed or anything dangerously bruised, I hurried back to my own quarters, changed my dirty clothing into a matching set, and splashed some cool water in my face in the community latrine before hurrying to the detention center. It consisted of a single room with two walled off partitions blocked by crude iron gates.

I was hit by wall of emotion as soon as I rounded the bend into the area. It was so strong that I staggered slightly. The female was extruding several different feelings at once. Relief, concern, happiness, regret, sadness, and even a trace of fear, but they were so jumbled together that they were hard to gauge. Europa, who was standing behind her master, was not giving anything that I could feel over the force of the other two. Richard was pulsing with a cold burning rage so strongly that I got a tinge of fear just being near him. I had never felt this so purely before, and that added to my unease. I did not hear what Catherine had said, but now that she simply stood there, smiling weakly as if wanting placation, Richards anger peaked. It turned into action with a rapidty akin to the snapping of a steel cord.

***CRACK***

He swung his hand down in a terrific swipe, catching her on the left cheek with enough force that I actually heard his knuckles pop from across the room. I barely caught a hint of the girls dazed shock under the roiling tide of his rage.

"Boss… No…" I called weakly, my fear holding me back. This form of anger reminded me of something, ripples stirring in the dark waters of my forgotten memory. He did not hear, or simply paid no heed. He moved forward to where she sat, to stunned from the force of the slap to even have brought her hand up to the welt on the side of her head.

"What…I… AHHH-urk!" She said as Richard sunk the fingers of his right hand deep into her hair, and lifting her to her feet by it. He then grabbed her hard by the throat with his left and backed her with a slam into the wall. She clung feebly to his arm as she hung a few inches off of the ground.

I caught another hint of a deep memory stirring in the bubbling dark space of my mind. A man, haggard an large, looming tall over me. Shadows were all that was visible where the eyes should have been. There was a flash, then the man was yelling, bleeding on the floor, then I lost it.

Richard drew back his right fist, then slammed it into the put of her stomach. Once, twice, three times. I was crying, the tears running silently down my face, a searing stab of… something slicing through my head with each blow. He threw her to the floor almost casually. I had to grab the sides of my head to balance against the pain as another image rose from the bog of stagnant memory.

It was a still image that I am certain I have never seen before. It took me few seconds before I could tell that the brutalized mass of bruises and pulped meat had at one time been a girl. Her flesh was purple with bruises and the skin had been broken open in places from the force of the blows she had been struck with. She was dead, her skull caved in, but the oozing blood and bruises all over her exposed skin showed that she had been alive for the worst of the trauma.

I found myself on my knees, bile in my throat and tears pouring from my eyes at the sheer horror of the scene. Richard had just reached where Catherine lay, coughing weakly and curled into a fetal ball. He kicked out, twice, each blow causing my brain to throb with pain.

"No… No, please." I was muttering. Then, with horror in my heart, I saw him reach back and unclip the sheath of his serrated blade, and draw it slowly out. He knelt, almost tenderly beside the girl, and force her head away from her body, exposing her throat. He raised the blade high, and I reached out a hand weakly, completely impotent to stop him as the knife began to fall.

"NO!" I Sobbed. But there was no reaching him in time to stop him. I closed my eyes to avoid the sight. There was a snorting noise. I waited a few seconds longer, wanting it all to be over, then hesitantly opened my eyes. I had to wipe them clear to make sure I was seeing correctly.

Europa was hunched over, Richard's elbow clamped in her jaws, blood dripping away from the punctures her teeth had made. He just starred at her face, as if he couldn't understand what she was. She jerked her head sharply, with enough force to dislocate his shoulder, pulling him off his knees and away from the shivering, semi-coconscious girl. He fell on his back, barking in pain and quickly grasping his now dead arm. He sat up, an looked around. His anger had snapped and evaporated at the same instant Europa had tugged him. Now as he looked over the scene, Casey shivering on the ground and me tear stained on my knees, I felt feelings change. It ballooned up until it filled the room as the full gravity of what he did impacted his rational mind. I do not know what this feeling was, but I can only categorize it a something I was familiar with from my time as a prisoner/toy to the Perish Guard. If I had to call it something, I would simply call it black. It was a feeling of pure, void like black. He looked toward me, but did not meet my eyes. His voice shook and broke when he spoke.

"Ca… call the Doctor. And Vinn. Take care of her and put her in a cell. Gu… Guard. Two person. Do it." He rose shakily to his feet and tottered off., cradling his busted arm. Europa fixed me with a pleading look, and then followed him. I quickly pulled the now unconscious girl into the closest cell, locked it, and placed the key on the floor across the room out of reach. I called Vinn's Pokegear and filled him in briefly and gave the orders as I ran after Richard. His office door was closed, but I walked right in, glad that it did not have a lock. He was leaning over, vomiting into the metal barrel he used for waste paper while Europa hung back, unsure of what she should do. When he rose, he still did not meet my Eyes.

"Can you help me snap this back into place?" He flopped his dead arm. I moved briskly over, and worked it back into its socked with a wet pop. He grunted in pain but made no other sound. After the pain faded slightly, he pulled out number of forms, and began scribbling over the sheets. Europa kept looking at me, pleading for me to do something with her eyes, as if she to could feel what I felt coming from Richard.

"Sign this." He pushed one of the documents over to me, and laid his pen on top, and then pulled out another and kept writing. I began to read the document.

_ The assigned __**Aurora "Snow" Frost**__ is hereby placed in command of the PokeRangers, Johto division. Previous commander, __**Richard Voi**__ has been relived from duty for reasons of __**Behavior unsuitable for a member of the PokeRangers at any level.**__ This discharge is accepted without contest and shall be enacted at the first available moment a member of aid PokeRagers is available to relieve him._

There was more, but I stopped reading.

"No." I said, quietly. He did not look up.

"Yes. I need you to sign that."

"No." I said it in the same voice, and a flare of anger blossomed.

"Damn it, woman," He yelled, "This is not the time for you to be acting up. I need you" I cut him off with a sharp slam across the face. He sat back, not shocked, but stupefied.

"Shut up! Just… Quiet!" I yelled. "You're scaring me…" My voice broke, and tears rolled down my cheeks again.

"Oh.. God…Snow… I'm so… Oh my God." He was crying now. Still trying to talk. "I… God no… I… I beat her. I just straight beat her. She was weak and helpless and I just…" He paused as vomited again. He then broke into full racking sobs, that feeling of black and a surge of pure disgust fighting for dominance. I moved in and wrapped my arms around him. I urged him to his feet and walked him over to the couch against the wall, and sat down, still holding him. We simply cried together for a long while, Europa moved over as well, and nuzzled her head in his lap, trying to comfort him. After about ten minutes, he finally calmed enough that we could talk, although he would break off into sobs every now and again. It was a full hour before anything coherent emerged.

By this time we were sitting there, my arm over his shoulder, his head on my own, while he stroked Europa's head as it lay in his lap.

"You are never allowed to scare me like this again." I said. A new wave of shame crashed over him.

"I'm so sorry, Snow." I took it as a time to voice the odd thought I had got during the event.

"During the… Thing… I saw something. A couple of images. I don't think I had ever seen them before." He was quiet, and I took that as assent to continue. "One was a man with shadows for eyes, once healthy, and once beaten." He felt no swoops of emotion. "And… something else. It looked like the body of a girl, but it was mauled really badly…" There was a brief swoop, shame, guilt, intense despair, that was cut off so quickly I almost thought I had imagined it. This was something he was used to suppressing. "Was that from your memory?" he was quiet for a long time.

"…Yes, it was." There was hesitance with all of it. I don't think he had ever shared any of this with anyone before.

"What was it?" There was an even longer pause.

"I am sorry, but I can't." He choked back a sob. The was un repressed despair and guilt so strongly I had to blink back additional tears myself. "Mabye some day, but I can't… I'm not strong enough. The guilt was flooding in so strongly I was getting overwhelmed. I squeezed him and covered one of his hands with mine.

"Shh, it's okay, you don't have to go there, just let it pass, you're safe." There was another pulse of guilt so strong it knocked my focus off, and another picture of the girl's badly mangled body flitted through my mind. He swallowed hard.

"Snow… I need you to help me."

"With what?" I asked, actually turning and looking at him.

"Help me make this… god, I don't know the word. Help me make… make it so that Casey will be ok."

I did not quite understand what he was asking, so we talked about it for a long time. He was not looking for atonement, of forgiveness, but just wanted to do whatever it was in his power to do to make it so she could be okay. I got the just of what he was saying, but we never did manage to figure out how to put it into words.

(…)

I stood, arms behind my back, back to the wall, facing the cell holding miss Chambers. It had been three days since the debacle that had take place, and everything had been taken care of except where she was concerned. Now I was simply waiting. She sat in the cell, reading a book and most pointedly ignoring me. Richard was late. I was not worried, as either myself or Vinn were accompanying him everywhere, despite his continuous protest. He still carried the black feeling with him, always present under the façade he displayed, but he had, strangly, perked up this morning.

He walked in, minus his shirt, although I cannot blame him there. In his left hand he carried a knife harness and a belt with a single pokeball and pokegear set up attached to it. He held his right arm to his chest, not bothering with the sling, again understandable. Most would find it difficult to stand, much less move around in full motion. The angry red holes that marked where Europa's teeth had pierced stood out against his overly pale skin. He jerked his head from me to her, and I moved briskly forward, using the key in my hand to open the cage. Richard was a ball of nervous anxiety, and Catherine had a brief flutter of fear that showed no trace on her face. She continued to ignore both of us as I pulled the door open.

She looked in fairly bad shape, although the doctor said she would be fine. He had a thick layer of bandages covering her 3 fractured ribs, and a finger on her left hand was splinted from when it got broken during our scuffle. She had various bruising all over, plainly visible as the doctor had woven the bandages into a corset, leaving her no shirt. I was briefly amazed at the amount of scar tissue. Her entire left side torso down to her wrist. Whatever had happened, this girl had survived a lot. Maybe more than me. What stood out most though was the imprint of a hand, angry and purple, on the left side of her face.

I pulled the door open wide, and then reverted to my position against the wall. He walked up to the cell, and stepped inside.

"Here are your things." He placed the load on the edge of her bed closest to the door. Her eyes darted up from her book, then quickly back down. "There is nothing I can say to alleviate the awful thing I did, but I do want to say I am sorry. Form this point forward you will never have to deal with me again. Snow here will give you your options." With that, he turned his back on her and left. He eyes flicked up and she felt a thrill of shock as she saw the six ragged, bloody slashes on his back. She was quite for quite a while after he left, apparently lost in thought. I let what she saw percolate in her head for a minute then walked forward, and leaned my back against the wall outside her cell, crossing my arms and facing away from her.

"Can I speak candidly, Miss Chambers. She was slightly surprised.

"What? Oh… Uh, sure."

"I don't like you."

"Gee, you know what? I kind of gathered that from our fight the other day." Richard had filled me in on what she had told him before he beat her. She was working for the Perish Guard, but according to her, she wanted to join a resistance movement and feed them information on the Guard, while dummying info to the Guard. She said she joined our organization simply to double agent on her own organization. Unfortunately, Richard believed her, and he made a convincing argument in her defence.

"It's not because you are prettier than I am." Hit her with that one, threw her off balance. "It's not because your working for those horrible people proclaiming themselves liberators and champions." Wash of guilt. "It's not even because Richard still likes you." Embarrassment and a tiny shred of shame mixed with curiosity and a bit of general discomfort. I took a deep breath. I needed to make certain things clear before I let her know what her options for the future were. "No, it is because of the way you make him hurt just by being around." Actual shock, and som indignation."

"I make _him_ hurt? What the hell do you call…"

"Shut. Up." I said it low and quiet, but with enough force that she stopped dead. Richard asked me once why my voice was always a flat dead pan, and that my face showed no emotion except in very rare circumstances. I told him the truth. I was not aware. My voice sounded fine to me, but he said it never wavered an octave, and could be fairly intimidating if used right. I used it to good effect now. For some reason, people found the absence of any feeling behind words more frightening than any kind of anger or threat.

"Have you ever heard of something called an "Empath?"

"…no." She said, a little bit timidly.

"I hadn't either, until Richard saved me. I owe him my life, and will spend it to protect him from _anything_ that causes him harm." The emphasis I added conveyed my message. "An Empath is a person who has a high degree of Empathy, bordering on the psychic level. It is believed to be the result of a child exposed to a high degree of Psychic Pokémon energy while in the womb. In short, this allows the Empath to actually feel the emotions emanating from other people and Pokémon. I am such a person."

"I can feel the pain in him every time he looks at you. I can feel the hurt when he thinks about how you just gave him to the Perish Guard. I can feel the pain when he thinks about you. I can feel the dark black feeling when he thinks about what he _did_ to you strongest of all. I did not know what that felling is, only that was just a black, awful feeling that dwarfed even what I felt when I was a prisoner, or rather toy of the guard. This was far more dark and severe. After a few days to think on it and seeing what he is doing to himself just to try and continue functioning under its burden, I think I have an idea what it is." I closed my eyes, and she asked quietly after a moment. "… What is it?"

"I think his spirit is broken. He lost faith in himself." I could feel the rush of conflicting feeling rushing through her and waited for the storm to calm before continuing. "You saw the lash marks on his back." It was a statement, but she answered yes anyway. "He received those, by order of himself, not half an hour ago. The official record reads "for gross negligence of personal duty, usurpation of authority in the settlement of a personal matter, and conduct unbecoming of a member of a ranger. He tried to get a lot more, but as I had to authorize the punishment, I would not let him administer more that the actual charter required, plus one for and offence he made up."

"After he assaulted you, when he finally finished throwing up long enough to write, he drafted a resignation that I refused to accept. I do not blame you for these things, because I doubt you would know what caused this reaction, as even I cannot guess what it was, and he steadfastly refused to even face the actual causation behind it. At most you were just an accidental trigger." I sighed deeply.

"I tell you all of this, not because I want you to forgive him, or because of what I owe him. I do so only because I feel you should know what gravity you carry to him when I tell you what options you have now."

"Firstly, you can simply leave, return to the Perish Guard, never knowing where we actually are, or our actual number, or anything that could threaten our security." I could feel that she would not choose this one as there was a determined silence when I paused. She really seemed to be a part of it only to help bring it down on the inside.

"Secondly, you will be allowed to stay, under close scrutiny, for you proclaimed purpose, and if any evidence is found that you are actually allied with the Perish Guard any further that suits our purposes, I will personally be allowed to end you. This option includes the fact that you will never once have to take an order from, work with, or even be in the same room as out commander. It carries with it that he personally made me swear that if I even suspect that he was going to attempt to touch you in the slightest, that I am to eliminate him. He went so far in his sincerity to make sure that Europa, his Haxorus, does nothing to prevent this, and to take no action against you after the fact."

"Finally, we move you out. You disappear from Johto as if you never existed, spirited away to a safe region of Kanto, set up with a life of safety until such time as the Perish Guard is no longer in existence. At that point you will be given the choice to continue your life there, or return to your homeland. Personally, I would prefer you gone, and solely because of the ease Richard would feel knowing you were finally safe, I would urge you to take the third option. But, the choice is yours. Think it over, I will be in my office when you decide. Follow the hallway and take the first door on you right." Without waiting I turned and left.

I had barely sat behind the small metal desk when there was a knock and Catherine entered, wearing her knife harness over the bandages, the blade hanging hilt down from her chest, the belt hanging from her uninjured hand. I motioned for her to take a seat in the single other chair, a spindly little wooded chair, across from me. She did so, looking sheepish, but feeling determined.

"I think I know what I want to do, but I would like to ask you a few more questions, if I may."

**End chapter 12**


	13. Homecoming

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#13: Homecoming**

_**IMPORTANT!**_** This chapter is from the perspective of Snow, again.**

It's been three months since Richard tried to resign, and Catherine chose to become a permanent member of our group. She fit in fairly well, and had proven helpful in providing information on targets to hit, and populations we could convince to side with us. She earned her spot, by consent of Vinn and non-contest by me into the officers of our group. Our group had grown, to, and we had another small, satellite group working on the western side of the country. That's who I had thought the Abra that I was carrying in my arms was delivering a message from, but it was in an encryption I did not recognize, and neither did Vinn. So, I was taking it to the boss. As I rounded the corner into the expanded hallway where our quarters and offices were, I found Catherine, and she was immensely happy, ecstatic.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked, and she gave me a big smile.

"Head on in and you'll find out." Ugh. I continued on, rapped once, and walked in when I was told to enter.

"Ah, if it isn't my favorite bearer of bad news. What brings you to my neck of the woods today?" He was almost as happy as she had been. I figured they had been getting intimate.

"Message arrived, and we cant crack it." I placed the little creature on the wooden desk. Richard ignored it, and smiled knowingly at me.

"You know I can tell what you are thinking, Snow." I felt slightly embarrassed, but as usual my face did not show any hint of it. "Just go ahead and ask.

"Why was Miss Chambers so pleased?"

"Oh, you know, just because you don't apply any emotion in your voice, doesn't mean your words don't show me how you feel, dear." I raised an eyebrow so he would explain. He sighed. "You only use "Miss Chambers" when you are unhappy about whatever it is she's done. But, my little nag, I will have you know that she and I are both pleased because today Europa has finally forgiven Casey for the stunt she pulled way back when." To my own surprise, I was relived. "Now, let's see what problem you've given me…" He broke off when he actually looked at the paper.

Perhaps I should explain. Communication in the area is hard, because phone lines are monitored, so we cannot use anything more than intra-office wireless lines to communicate. But, a Pokémon able to teleport can carry messages in paper form. I never really understood why they have trouble moving some objects and not others, but only the most powerful can successfully teleport a human, and not always even then. But all seem to be able to carry paper messages.

The only words readable on the paper were at the top, and they merely said "Echo 4" in the same green ink that the odd shapes were written in. Looking grim, and feeling forboding, he pulled out his pokedex and began working the keys. He scanned the paper, then worked some more. He apprehension increased.

"What is it?" He held up a hand, turned the paper over, worked some keys on his pokedex, then copied the seven symbols displayed on it onto the paper before writing the words "Hudson 12" at the top. He tapped the shoulder of the little creature, who had been staring fixedly at me the whole time, and handed it the paper. There was a pop and it was gone.

"That," He said grimly, "was a summons from the home office, telling myself and my officers to report for a council meeting. Pack you shit, Snow, and tell Vinn and Casey to do the same. Looks like we are headed to Kanto.

(…)

Never underestimate the beneficial nature of having a heard of wild Pokémon on your side. Crossing over the border was no big issue, the ground types we shared our mountain lair with tunneled us over below the range of the Guards sensor equipment. Once over, we took Pallet to Cinnabar to Fuchsia. We disembarked from the ship we had been on since leaving Pallet town, and headed through the Port Authority building and into the city proper. Richard was pointing to things, and telling me while he walked, hand in hand with Miss Chambers. I may never understand how they managed to not only forgive each other, but start a relationship, but both were very happy with the arrangement. I noted that though they were linked by the hand, he was speaking specifically to me, even though Vinn and Miss Chambers were native Johto citizens as well.

"You see, Snow, back when I was little, lets say…oh, yay high, this was not the bustling city it is today. I mean, it was a fair size, and the occupation didn't really hit down here as hard as it did the north, but it was certainly sleepy. But as Rangers grew, the city did as well. I think, back a coupla of years ago, it was even challenging Saffron City for Best City in the land." It made sense. The proximity of the Ranger headquarters would likely make this the closest spot for off duty personnel to come for recreation. This was re-enforced as we passed a number of bars, pubs, clubs, ice cream parlors, and even a building that looked suspiciously like a…

"Richard, what it that place?" Miss Chambers asked, pointing out the building I was examining.

"What, that? Crazy Eddie's Discount Cat House? It's a brothel, dear. Nice place, to. Cheap drinks, pretty girls, and the best damn steak fries in town. Remind me after this whole Ranger nonsense is over and I'll take you in and introduce you to Ed and some of the girls." I enjoyed the little irritated feeling that crept up in her.

"So you like to frequent whore houses?" The was a brief flash of anger in richard and he stopped.

"Catherine Elizabeth Chambers!" He said indignantly, and she knew she had done something wrong. "I am surprised at you. I will have you know that each and everyone of those lovely ladies that have the privilege of being employed in this establishment is the spitting image of a lady. More than I can say about you. I'm going to have to bend you over my need and give you the paddling's you need to learn you some manners.

"You do and Snow gets to kill you." I disliked that she included me in her argument, even if it was technically true. He sighed, but it was obvious even without reading him that he was now simply joking.

"Fine, then. I'll have to give them to Vinn."

"Ooo, really?" He had been giving the eye to a pair of men on the other side of the street, who were returning it happily when the talk of spanking drew his attention. Richard threw his arm around his shoulders, and I felt the rush of disappointment from the men across the street.

"You see, Catherine," she flinched again at the sound of her rightfully given name, "Vinn here is a whore."

"And how!" He replied enthusiastically. "And there is a big, humungous, collasal difference between what I am and what those doubtlessly lovely ladies inside."

Richard drop the subject then, and we continued moving through the city, him again holding Miss Chambers hand, and pointing out various structures. Eventually he lead us to a dilapidated building overgrown with vines, the front windows blackened by congealed filth.

"…And, here we are. Ladies, I give you all the headquarters of the Kanto Pokerangers!" He waved his hands and posed like a gameshow contestant revealing a prize. Catherine looked scandalized.

"What, this?"

"Yes indeed.

"My god." Vinn said, clasping his hand to his mouth in mock surprise. "I see what this is. You were never really a Ranger at all, this was all just some big con so that you could start a harem of beautiful people like us to service you. You craft bastard, I salute you!" He sauluted him.

"What? No, but I like the Idea. Write it down for me."

"How long ago were you quartered here? It seems like it's been abandoned for decades." I added. He was genuinely confused now.

"What are you guys… OH!" He was hit by a realization. "Oh, no, Sorry guys, I forget, you aren't from here, so word probably never got around to you o'er in Johto. Years ago, long before any of us were born, probably when out parents were children, this place, all this area encompassed by the fence here, was Called the Safari Zone. Actually, it still is, but it doesn't mean anything anymore. Back then though, back when Red was still pounding is way through the Gyms and making a name for himself this place opened as a kind of Game Park where you could hunt exotic Pokémon to add to your team. Well, about 30 years ago, when the big war with Johto first started, the Park closed and was left in disrepair because the owners either fled or were killed because they were caught Vacationing in Johto at the time. Anyway, about 23 or 24 years ago, when the original Rangers were almost hunted to extinction by Irving's Army, a Man Named James Stone was visiting with his women, and he bought the place, cheaply, because no one wanted it."

"You see, he discovered that all the Pokémon that we released into the wild after training them for a while, were making there way here and breaking into here, because it has the largest concentration of different environments in one area anywhere in the world. Desert, lakes, marshland, mountains, snow fields, plains, you name it, it's all withing this enormous plot of land. So Mr. Stone buys the land, and starts building a mansion in the center, and moves himself and his brand new family there. Through his connections with the original Rangers, he began copying all the records and files, storing them safly for the day when the organization would collapse, and when it did, he rescued yhr two surviving members and started his own Rangers, updated to work in a world where battling Pokémon harmlessly no longer happened."

"This building is left here like this while the real HQ is in the exact center of the Zone. Now, I know the people in there, and I would give you any odds, they would just love to ambush us for a bit of hazing as were are the new guys. I don't want to make it easy, so were are going over the fence that way, right into the forest. I want you to keep you're eyes and ears sharp, as all kinds of wild Pokémon live her, and many are not friendly, and if any of the Rangers do Catch us, they will make the beating Casey and Snow traded look like a friendly match of twister. Non lethal only, though, as they are friendly, even if only on paper. Pokémon out to, because I DO NOT want to be caught with my pants around my ankles. I have a Reputation to uphold." He ended his speech and began walking off along the fence to the left of the broken building, and I felt like this was not going to be as difficult as he seemed to imagine it.

(…)

Richard had told us how he knew we were going to be attacked because the note he had received had said they would be performing a demonstration of capabilities, and the Rangers pulled no punches. He told us also that the message he sent in reply simply said "Coming." So they had several estimates on when they would arrive, and enough personnel to cover them all. We walked for a half an hour along the fence before we went over, no difficult feat in itself as the fence was designed to keep things in.

It was an amazing place, even just the small portion I was able to see. When me crossed, we were in pleasantly flat country, but directly on the opposite side of the fence we were buried in dense forest. Thick fir trees by the hundreds, often thicker around then all four of us together climbed sometimes two hundred feet in the air, and grew in such thick patches much of the area we travelled was bathed in permanent shadow. Everywhere you looked were Pokémon of all shapes and sizes. Flocks of Pidgey and Spearow. A lone Noctowl, Ratata and Bidoof rooting around in the fallen needles. I even saw a Snivy fighting an Ekans over a it's nest.

Richard told us that he chose this way because it was the least likely of routes to take, as this forest was home to the largest pack of Grovyle in the world, as it was their mating season. He did not worry though, as with my special talents, we would have enough warning should we encounter any, and he was fairly aware of where the pack frequented. He told me to keep this skill to myself around the others, as he would like some covert readings during the meeting, and if nothing else, did not want to bring me under any extra scrutiny.

We made it through the forest with no mishap, and after about two or three miles, it melted almost imperceptibly until we were embroiled in a deep, smothering jungle. About half a mile in, we found a shallow stream trickling happily through the jungle, and we followed this for another mile. He turned off suddenly back into the jungle, for a quarter of a mile, and then stopped. The trees were thinner here, but the under growth was thicker. He put his finger to his lips, and the whole procession cam noiselessly to a halt in the semi clearing. I had Gigalith out, Vinn his Nidoking, Catherine her Feraligator, and Richard his Haxorus.

He motioned me closer, and reaching into a cluster of leaves, pulled them slightly apart and motioned me to look through. I was so surprised I think it even showed slightly on my face. On the other side of the leaves was broad amber grassland of about chest height stretching as far as the eye could see. A heard of Tauros were way of to the left, milling restlessly, and straight ahead of where I was looking was a tremendous three level mansion sitting majestically in the sea of gently waving grass. He closed the leaves, and motioned to me if I could feel anything. I shook my head and he gave the signal that we could converse.

"How did you manage to guide us to this spot without any map?" Vinn asked, showing the degree of impressed we all felt.

"During training I spent a lot of time out here. Me and Euro know this place really well. The way I see it, we have maybe an two hours before it gets dark, and I think we may have a better chance of reaching the house… I mean the HQ in the dark, so I suggest…" He was cut of by the sound and shockwave of a huge something impacting the ground where we had just been looking out at the field. The force of the object hitting literally lifted us off our feet and threw us. It was an odd thing though, as we slowed severely before we hit the ground, and came to a gentle stop when we did impact. I learned later that this was an effect of when a Pokémon that is in a Pokeball that is protected; it physically cannot harm a human. This Pokémon that attacked was like that, and I learned later that ours were switched before the fight started remotely.

I looked up as I started to rise at the thing that fell, and was greeted by the sight of the most magnificent Dragonite I had, or will have ever seen. Every iota of its bearing was regal and refined, and even its expression was somber as it crooned a haunting, quivering cry. This was answered by an enraged roar and Europa charged and sprung, feet extended, hitting the much larger dragon in the chest and knocking it backward to its back on the ground.

"Shit, hit them with everything you got, don't let them get you pinned!" Richard yelled, and I felt the anger and disappointment in him. A yellow fox bounded from between trees, making its way to try and assist the Dragonite with Europa, but Vinn's Nidoking caught one of its tails, and reeled the Ninetales closer before throwing it back into the foliage. There was another roar and a Charizard with one horn broken off in a jagged splinter fell out of the sky and slammed the Nidoking to the ground.

It was at this point in the battle that I could no longer pay attention to the Pokemon as people were dropping out of the trees and assaulting us. I saw Vinn take a hard punch from a slightly Asian looking man as Gigalith backed across my view under a viscous onslaught of electric attacks provided by an Ampharos. Richard was locked in combat with a Woman with long ruby red hair, who was slashing at him with a whip that he was only barley managing to avoid the worst of with his cane. Catherine was busy with a redhead(ginger) whose hair only fell to her shoulders, and my own antagonist appeared in front of me. She had blue hair that fell to her shoulder blades and had bright, compassionate eyes. We did not last long against the people, but out Pokémon fared better. Myself, Catherine, and Vinn we're helped up after we were defeated, while Richard's assailant had bound his wrist and stood with her boot on the back of his neck while she wiped blood from a cut under her eye. Apparently he had drawn is cane sword and bisected her whip and scratched her face. We were all watching the dueling Pokémon now.

Gigalith had gained it is composer back after the sneak attack, and was now hitting the Ampharos hard with a variety of rock based attacks, and it wasn't long before it landed a critical and the electric type fell. The Feraligator was firing jets of water at the Charizard, who had taken to the air to avoid the super effective attacks.

The Ninetales' eyes began to glow blue, and a semi visible ball of fire danced between the two, and the Nidoking became burned. This angered the tyrant who shook his honed head in several directions, and roared in frustration, it's Rage attack building. It lashed out again and again and again, but the fox's greater agility made it so that the giant could not land any of his heavy attacks. It landed several quick attacks, chiping away at its heath until finally it swung a blow, failed to recover, and crashed to the ground, out.

The Charizard swooped down, crushing the gator with it's Fly attack, befre planting its feet and launching it through a tree with a Seismic Toss. It walked up to the slowly recovering water type, and flicked open it's hands, it's claws lost in dark shadow. Waiting for it to Regain it's feet, it the slashed first with one hand, then the other, the Shadow Claw knocking the beast out.

The real show was happening as Europa battled the massive Dragonite. It had rolled with her still attached, and then taken to the air, before performing an Air Drop and slamming the smaller dragon underneath its incredible weight. Europa had somehow managed to use Protect before it hit the ground, and bounced up and sliced downward in a vicious arc with her Blade tusks. The was a flash of silver light, and the Dragonite's eyes widened slightly before it slumped and fell over, knocked out. Europa had used the dicey Guillotine attach, causing instance knockout if it hits.

She then hunched, the muscles under her plates growing, while her tail lengthened by another vertebrae and her tusks grew longer so that they now ended past the back of her skull. She turned to face the Charizard now but was merely engulfed in the large plume of flames it shot. She wobbled in the wake of the attack, black plates scorched and no longer shiny. The Charizard walked up, gave her a slightly respectful snort, and finished her with a headbutt.

The woman with blue hair moved forward and revived all of the felled Pokémon, while the woman with the ruby red hair lifted Richard roughly to his feet and shoved him over to Vinn. I pulled a knife as parted the binding on his wrists. He dusted himself off, then straightened his hat.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat, "Snow, Vinn, Casey," he jerked a thumb at each of us as he named us, "Allow me to present General Jormungand, chief officer of the entire Rangers." He pointed to the thin, well built man with the slightly Asian features. He wore tight fitting grey and black camouflage and moved with a youthful grace.

"This is Commandant Cosspatch, who rules over the academy." He indicated the Ruby haired woman, who made no notion that she was paying the slightest bit of attention outside the fact that she was glaring fairly intensely at Catherine. For some reason, I found this slightly pleasing. She was ruggedly beautiful; the lines of her face hard and sharp. Her dark blue eyes were sharp and clever looking.

"This is Rose, one of the founding members." The Redhead was a more casual kind of beautiful, the kind you don't really catch at first glace. She was skinnier than the others, and was the tallest of the bunch. Her light green eyes twinkled slightly.

"And this one goes by Bright Eyes." He indicated the Blue haired woman who I had faced. Her dark Brown eyes certainly lived up the her name. She had a quite peacefulness about her, in the way she stood and smiled softly. She was cute rather than outright pretty. The entire group were all giving off the same feeling quiet excitement.

"Shall we retire to the Academy? There is much still to do tonight."

"Sir, yes sir!" Richard snapped, popping into a salute. The professionalism they had been exhibiting snapped like a steel wire. They all sighed explosively.

"God, way to break the mood, Dickie." The one called Rose said, smacking him in the back of the head as she walked by.

"Punk-ass." Crosspatch scoffed, crossing her arms and shaking her head as she followed Rose out. Bright Eyes said nothing, but still had a bit of a smile on her face as she left, tailing Jormungand. Catherine and Vinn decided to join in.

"We really cannot take you anywhere." Vinn said, and pushed past him.

"Idiot." Catherine clucked, and stalked through the wall of leaves. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Anything from you?" He asked. I shook my head. He sighed, and strangely was a slight bit disappointed. "Oh well. Then let's go, Don't want to leave the brass waiting to long." He retrieved his cane and sheathed it, then recalled Europa and pushed through the leaves into the grassland. I followed and then stopped dead.

Waiting for us in amber sea was the largest Pokémon I had ever seen. I recognized it by description, never having seen one myself. The long, thick green body, the red highlights across it's scales, even the two tiny arms way up near it's head. All these people mere now climbing into the serpentine back of a Rayquaza. At that moment, I wondered what other surprises awaited us in this foreign land.


	14. Family Matters

**Pokemon: Warpath**

_**I do not own the Pokemon, and long odds on me owning 'em to anything else you may recognize.**_

**#14: Family Matters**

_**IMPORTANT!**_** This chapter is from the perspective of Snow, again. I decided to split it into two chapters so that 13 would not end up being over 20+ pages. This will, for the time being, be the last in the perspective of Snow, and the next will take over the helm of a brand new character.**

When we touched down in front of the mansion, for that is what it was, despite the other functions of being a school and a barracks. It was well maintained on the outside, and rose three stories into the air. Richard told me that the third floor had been added a few years back when they outgrew the original structure. He said that the main classroom areas and armories were on another level completely, below the surface. The ground floor was entrance hall, ceremony hall, kitchen, and dining hall. He said that when there were exhibitions, the dining hall would be cleared and used for contest, sparing, that type of thing.

The second floor was divided down the middle from west to east by one long hallway. At the west end were the stairs to the floor, and at the east a giant recreation room filled with televisions, games, that kind of stuff. Walking toward the rec-room, the Girls quarters were on the left, (North) and the Boys were quartered to the right, (South). At the far end of each side of the hall were the showers and bathrooms, enough for the majority of the static population to all bath/defecate at once if the need arose. While the initial billets were segregated, mingling was allowed, and not frowned upon except in the event that it interfered with an individual's assignment. The rooms themselves were long house fashion, one giant room, with beds at evenly spaced intervals, each paired with a night table, a lamp, and a chest. Hanging from the ceiling was a thick opaque curtain that could be drawn around the whole unit to give the occupant some privacy. The second floor connected to the third via a staircase in the rec-room, but I was not allowed up there, and Richard did not tell me what was up there.

We were given ten minutes to change into uniform and present ourselves outside. Since we did not have any uniforms, they were provided for us. They were simple plain back garment that left only the hands and face uncovered, with gold piping running along the shoulder seams and a white band around the cuff. I was led into the female bunkroom and given an open bed to change behind and leave my own clothing on. The room itself was deserted, and I was to learn later that all non-essential staff (which was everyone of Lieutenant or lower, save myself, Catherine, Vinn, and Richard,) were on leave as there was no major trouble in the county for the moment. There were still numerous people staying at the lodge, because they didn't want/ have family to visit, or had no interest in doing anything more taxing than sleeping, but none of them were in at the moment.

I stripped to my short clothes, and after finding out how tight fitting the uniform was, ditched those as well. I folded my own clothing and left it in a neat pile on the bed where they said I could leave my things. I was forced to alter where I kept a few of my knives in order to keep them concealed, but I finally managed to get a number I felt comfortable with, flattened the lines of the pants, and headed out. I retraced the route I had been shown when I was lead to the room, and made my way back down stairs and into the entrance hall. Richard was standing there, back against the wall, eyes closed. He looked passive, but inside he was angry. Really angry.

"What took you so long?" There was a bitter chop in his voice, though he was obviously trying hard to suppress it.

"Sorry. I had to figure out how to stash my blades in this outfit." I felt a small swoop of pride.

"Good girl."

"Are you okay?" He felt a stab of remorse, and then a large sweep of embaressment.

"Shit, sorry, yeah. Forgot you can feel…everything for a second. Yeah. I… I just found put I've been getting lied to for a long time, and they are completely justified in doing so. Anyway, enough about that. I talked to my mother, and she asks that you join the family in dinner tonight." He managed to suppress his feelings on the matter, and I blinked a few times, and he looked at me with a look that said plainly that he did not want his feelings in the matter to influence me here.

"Sure. I would like to meet your family."

"Ok, er… cool. They also invited Casey and Vinn, but I wanted to ask you first. Don't tell them. Ok, this is going to be a formal…" He stumbled for the right word. "… inquisition, so don't get to much into details until they bring out the red hot pokers. They like it when they have to work for it." I was surprised as what he said, but I guess it didn't register on my face, as he gave me a grimace and pushed the door open, and let me walk in ahead of him.

The room was spacious, but dominated by a large, highly polished wooden table. On one side sat Catherine, and then Vinn, with an open pace for Richard, and another for me at his right. I knew this to be symbolic of the way he thought. He put the one he liked away from scrutiny, furthest from him. This was a business meeting, so he was in full business mode. He liked to say that I was his right hand girl, and Vinn was his left hand girls, so Vinn was directly to his left while I was to the right. He pulled out my chair, and seated me, before seating himself.

Our Pokémon were all off to the left side of the room, watching the proceedings from the side in stoic silence. I noticed two odd things here: first, Europa was being extremely submissive in gesture to the Dragonite, rubbing her face with on his, ignoring us. Another was a Gardevoir. It was the loveliest I had ever seen, her long white dress skin elegant and glittering, and her green areas a dark forest-y green. I was told that this is a mark of age, that the older this breed got, the darker green it got, while when it started to decline, the white would yellow slightly. The normally pinkish patch on its chest was also a velvety red, another marker. The oddest part of this is that it was staring at me with its calm, unblinking eyes. It was slightly unnerving.

Across the table, from my left to right were Rose, Bright Eyes, the General, The Commandant, and another woman I had not met. She was like a copy of the Commandant, with the exceptions that her hair was emerald, her eyes were a purple, soft and kind, and hers was a more rounded beauty, and seemed as if it were shining form within her. The commandant cleared her throat, and ran the meeting.

"I hereby call this assemblage to order. Presiding from Pokerangers command are as follows: General Sven "Jormungand" Thymes, Commanding officer: Pokerangers global. "Commandant Violetta "Crosspatch" Sanchez, Head of Pokerangers Acadamy, Kanto. Meridia Sanchez, Officer of Pokerangers, Kanto. Elizabeth "Bright Eyes" Voi, Officer of Pokerangers, Kanto." At the name I turned and looked at Richard. I noticed Catherine also looked at him, her eyebrow cocked inquisitively. He stared straight at the Commandant, a slight scowl on his face. "Victoria "Rose" Stevens, Officer of Pokerangers, Kanto." Richard sat up straighter and picked up where she stopped.

"Presiding for Pokerangers, Johto are Richard Voi, Founder of Pokerangers, Johto." Again, I found with both looked at him at mention of his last name. He still ignored us, then surprised me quite unpleasantly, so that all thought of that was driven from my head. "Aurora "Snow" Frost, Chief Officer of Pokerangers Johto." I stared openly at him, but could get no read on his feelings. If fact, I could not get a read on anyone in the room. But I was not happy. What was this ridiculousness about me being Chief Officer? I was sure I had not let him duck out on the duty. "Alexander "Vinn" Vinn, Head officer of Headquarters, Pokerangers Johto." This was no news, as Vinn handled all the paperwork we had, along with all of the little homey details that made our hideout our home. "Catherine Elizabeth "Casey" Chambers, "Officer of Pokerangers Johto." He looked straight in the eyes of Jormungand.

"Commander, I hereby present formally all officers of the Pokerangers Johto for your inspection." The general nodded kindly.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Voi." HE then turned, much to my surprise, to look right at me. "Madam Frost, it is my great honor and privilege to welcome our neighbors into the fold of our organization." He smiled genially, and removed an envelope from somewhere below the table. "As per the designs we were given, we have fabricated the badges to mark youeselves as Rangers. Carry them with pride, knowing the burden they signify." He opened the envelope, and slid the small gold emblems to me, Vinn, and Catherine. Picking it up, I saw it was a solid gold little slug, with a Typhlosion, Meganium, and Feraligator engraved on it. It took me a minute before Richard prodded me softly under the table so that I would respond.

"Thank you, Sir." He smiled in genuine pleasure.

"Also, allow us to present you with these…" Rose lifted a basket full with a blanket onto the table, and parting the folds after she stood, revealed thrww spotted yellowish eggs. "It had been tradition for as many years as there has been any form of Ranger on this earth, to present our officers with an Eevee upon their graduation into fully fledged officers. We beg apology for the belatedness of this gift, due to the problems that are currently preventing effecting out two countries." Rose handed an egg to Catherine, then Vinn, and then me while the General talked. Mine had the name "Snow" written on it in neat handwriting with a sharpie marker. His face then went stern.

"Now, if we may get to the matter at hand, we need to formulate what to do about said situation between our countries."

He talked about what they knew about our situation, the estimates on the strengths and deployments of the Perish Guard. The had a lot more information that we had been trying to gather. These facts and things went on for quite a bit. Then he jumped into the plans they had devised to bring about the end of Perish's rule over the country, and begin working with Kanto again. In sort, they wanted to send a contingent of their own over with us in order to expedite the fall of his regime. When the General made this point, Richard cut in.

"Absolutely not."

"And why not? You want to continue playing leader to your own little group of rebels?" The commandant snapped. Again, I could not feel any of the anger she clearly held. But again I was not given a chance to analyze this.

"God, no. Tell them why this would not only fail tremendously, but make it worse." I found I could actually answer this.

"Our people still bear resentment for the last war, when we finally pushed the Kanto occupation out of our lands. The attacks made by Irving's troops only made the general dislike for the Kantonese greater. Even with the atrocities Perish and his troops commit, he still hold much popular support among the general populace. Any attempt of a group of armed, highly trained people of any variety coming from Kanto would be seen as an act of aggression, even by the most removed of citizens. Any successful resistance would have to be made of and run by native dissenters." At this sentence, I realized why Richard had still managed to maneuver me into the top spot, as least in writing. We were a proud and independent people, and we had suffered to much at the hands of the Kantonese in recent history to accept them at present.

The meeting wound to a close not long after, and we were told that the operation would remain in our hands, but more effort needed to be placed on stabilizing the region. Once we were back in our home country, we would work out a method for them to pass supplies and other such things to us. Our goal was to have the majority of the troops liquidated in the time of a year, so that they could start making a push at becoming friendly with the people of Johto. Jormungand closed the meeting.

"Very good, you have allayed our worries for the time being, and we will rely on you to fulfill your our goals.. So, as of now, I am placing you all on one week of leave. We shall appoint you quarters, and you are free to come and go as you please. Dismissed." He bowed while sitting, then left the room quickly, followed by the Commandant, Meridia, Bright Eyes, and finally Rose. Richard sat scowling at the wall where the officers had just been sitting.

"Well… Shit. They sure worked the fast one over on us, didn't they?"

"Why did you not tell me you place me in charge of the Johto rangers?" I asked quietly. He sighed explosively.

"Because I knew that if I did, you would have fought me on it until I relented. I trust you can see why iy was necessary to force your hand a bit? Good. Besides, I'll still run the thing if you want, you just have the option of telling me to blow it out my ass if you don't like where I am steering. You three notice anything odd about that whole meeting thing?" Catherine was the first to answer.

"That that blue haired woman who kept glaring at me has the last name of Voi." I still was unable to sense the emption around me, but I did not need to to be able to tell that she was both angry and nervous.

"No, that's fairly normal. It was something else." I tried.

"They have a whole command structure and yet they allow a gang of kids to run the branch in another country?"

"No, I reported to them while you all were changing and they all agree we have more than proved that we are capable of handling it." Vinn said his own idea, disinterestedly.

"They are worried about something, but are not telling us what it is."

"Exactly. That is odd. They gave it away with that one year limit thing. They want us to hurry, but they don't want us to work so fast as to get sloppy. That they are not giving us the reason for the haste is a concern, as I have never known them to leave out the reasoning behind their missions before." He shook his head, then turned to the two on his left.

"Oh, my family asked if you would be so kind as to join us for dinner. You guys interested? If not, the mess room is always open, or I can recommend a good restaurant in town." Even though Catherine was still viably flustered, she assented, as did Vinn. "Alright, then, shall we go and get this ordeal over with?" He lead us from the meeting hall, up to the second floor, and then to the door leading to the third floor. He said nothing, but the looks Vinn and Catherine were sharing as the walked in front of me said they were thinking along the same lines as I was. He opened the door and held it for us. It led to a softly lit carpeted staircase wide enough for three of us walking with arms linked. I followed Catherine and Vinn up, and came to a stop in the same manner as they did at the top.

I did not know what to make of it at first. It was as modern and comfortable as the lower floors were utilitarian. All the lighting was indirect, reflected out into the room giving good light, but no discernable glare. Thickly padded seating littered the room in various dark shades of green, blue, and black, sitting atop deep, soft carpeting. Still without speaking, Richard walked past us and we followed him past a door where a shiny kitchen unit was visible, into another room with a polished wood table where 4 people were already seated. It was the same people who were at the meeting: General Jormungand, Commandant Crosspatch, Bright Eyes, and Rose. Only the one named Meridia was absent, but not for long as she hauled in a large dish of food and placed it at the table. Bright Eyes motioned for us to take a seat, and we all obeyed, Richard sitting between me and Catherine, with Vinn to her left. I sat in the tense silence, looking at no one in particular. Finally, Richard spoke, I assume to try and break the awkwardness of the situation.

"So, I suppose I should probably make introductions, right? Ok." He took a brief, deep breath, as if bracing himself for an unpleasant task, but was cut off by Bright Eyes.

"Oh, Richard, why do you have to be such an ass about everything?" She shook her head, then turned to look at me. "Hello, everyone. I have the misfortune of being his Biological mother. Thankfully, I can say he draws the majority of personality from his father." She smiled warmly again. "While Rose, Meri, Yorm and Vie can claim no Biological connection, we are all family pretty much because we all love each other, and can be." She took a moment to shoot an angry look at her son. "Now, Richard told related to us the events that have taken place during his time away from us, and though her did not implicitly state it, it is clear that you all are quite a bit more important to him that merely his officer core." Richard interrupted with clearly feigned indignanty.

"That is not true and you cannot in anyway prove these assumptions." They all ignored him, and Meridia placed a final dish on the table, before taking her own seat. This left on seat at the head of the table empty and unset, but no one paid any attention to it.

""Go ahead and start, everyone." The main family grabbed food and served themselves, and we followed suit shortly. No one spoke, the din of scraping dishes and chinking of silverware to loud to permit conversation. When it settled a bit, Bright Eyes continued.

"As such, we have, instead of assigning you all bed down below, have given you all rooms up here with us. So, we want you all to enjoy your week off, have some fun, and enjoy being the kids you are while you can. When you go back home, the hard work really begins, and you may not get another chance for leisure in years." I may have imagined it, but I thought Meridia looked at me with a bit of sadness. "Oh, and kids, when we are up here, business is not permitted. This floor is our house, and in it, we are all just family, not Rangers." From here, conversation was made generally, With each talking to whomever they pleased. Vinn was chatting with Jormungand, Casey was telling Richard off in angry whispers for not telling her that the head Officers of the Pokerangers were his parents, and I focused on my eating, not having anything worth talking about on my mind. Suddenly, Violetta spoke to the entire table after her conversation with Meridia was concluded.

"Oi." He voice carried the same authority now that it did when she was leading the meeting. Everyone turned to her. She pointed between me and Catherine with a half eaten roll as she spoke. "Which one of you wenches was the one who turned little Dickie over to the Perish Guard in exchange for favor?" I still was unable to feel anything. At all. Even the shock of this statement barely registered. I was at best only slightly interested with her words. She glared at me, and I met her gaze evenly and without concern. I had to Imagine Catherine almost choked. Violetta's eyes flicked over to her with such rapidity that you could almost here a "click."

"Tha- that was me." She replied meekly, looking down at her plate, her hands folded in her lap. Violetta stared at the top of her head for a second, then gave a grunt of approval.

"Good Job." She said, and continued eating. There was no sarcasm in her voice that I could hear; she seemed sincere. It took Catherine another few seconds to register this.

"… wait… what?" I looked over, and Richard looked almost as surprised as Catherine. Violetta waited until she swallowed a mouthful and took a drink before explaining.

"It was a helpful thing you did. You see, Dickie has always been fairly proficient at what we do, but that's likely simply a side effect of how we raised him."

"Aw, thanks, Vee, thanks too much." He said in deeply sarcastic tone.

"But," picked up Jormungand, "he never had any direction."

"Are you just going to all gang up on me, then?" As was a pattern I was starting to notice, they all ignored him. Bright Eyes continued.

"Yorm, Meri, Violetta, and James were all Rangers back before it was destroyed by Irving, Rose worked for a unbeknownst to her, sham faction of the resistance, and was for a short a member of Irving's regulars. We all know what it's like to live under the occupation. Richard was not even born until after almost all of the major fighting was done." Rose picked up the last bit.

"Yep. So when you turned his ass over, he got a firsthand look at just how it bad it really is. You gave at least a revenge oriented reason to fight." She then threw a sly smile at Catherine. "And then when you came back, you gave him a _real_ reason to fight." Catherine turned a little red at this. The rest of the meal passed rather pleasantly, and I was not focused on very much. Afterward, we were shown to rooms.

Mine was lavish compared to what we were used to. Two pillows, a double thickness memory foam mattress, a chest, a dresser, thick carpet, a desk, and even a computer that connected to the wireless system. Also, I got a single window as well, and as I was in a room on what was considered the back wall of the house, there were no outside lights, so I had a very good view of the beautiful grassland in the bright moonlight, and the snowy mountains in the distance. I was staring out at the dark sea of grass, watching the herd of Tauros settling to sleep when I heard a insistent knock on my door. It was Richard.

"Hey, Snow, Me, Vinn, and Casey are going to go and hit a bar, possibly figuritivly, possibly literally, depending on how the night goes. There isn't any chance you would want to go with us, is there?" I shook my head.

"No, thank you. I am just going to get some rest." I had no intrest in going out with them not out of spite or fatigue, I just had no desire. He looked at me, a little sadly.

"Ok, you have my number if you need me. Really, for anything. Don't hesitate. Oh, and if you happen to see anyone walking around without their… well, anything on, it's normal, just ignore it." I started at him and he elaborated, but not in making it any clearer. "Remember, my dear, it's only weird if you make it weird." He smiled a big, idiot smile, and left.

I gathered that this was his way of saying that I was free to dress, or undress in any way that I pleased, and no one would take any special notice of it. Why he could not just plain say that, I do not know. I settled however on simply my panties and a tank top, and decided I would check look into this country on the internet. After about an hour, I began to notice that I had to use the restroom. I closed my door softly behind me, and walked down the hall to the bathroom that had been pointed on the way to my room. It was an amazing room. State of the are toilet, with a padded and internally warmed seat, a bidet, an large, stomach deep tub, shower, and a full bookshelf. I was suitably impressed, and found myself at ease for the first time since leaving the sanctuary. I grabbed a book, and did my business, returning the tome and washing my hands before exiting. On my return, I met Meridia walking in the opposite direction. She smiled warmly. So warmly if thought I could actually feel heat radiating from it. The beautiful Gardevoir was gliding along next to her.

"Oh, hello, Miss Frost, are you finding your accommodations satisfactory?" She had a low, slightly Smokey voice that seemed to reverberate in your chest.

"I have never been in a nicer home." I replied, fearing I would come off as rude due to the fact that my voice never carried any inflection. She merely smiled again, and I could swear I felt my chest swell a little. Richard had talked of this woman before, said she put him in mind of the stories we read about Tamara Sperling Long and Maureen Johnson Long. It was hard to believe then, but she really did seem to radiate a motherly lovingness that had an effect just based on proximity.

"Thank you, dear. Would you walk with me, please?" Even if I had wanted to do otherwise, I doubt I would have been able. I nodded, and followed her. "Richard speaks most highly of you." It was a stamen made so clearly that no replied could be made. I remained silent. She led me into a large bedroom, and into another, circular hallway, then through yet another door. I think I must have gasped. If the bathroom I had used could be called opulent, this one was an act of hedonism. The center of the floor was dominated by a tub the size of a swimming pool, varying in waist depth lounging, to full eight foot deep swimming area. Several recessed slits along the base, angled so that untended feet would not get caught in them began to shoot water at an extreme rate into the tub, and it began filling with warm fragrant water. There were showers, water proof lounging couches, and even a fully stocked bar and refrigerator. The lighting was the same soft, indirect type as with the rest of the house, but was heavily supplemented by scented candles. I was so engrossed in taking in the sight, that Meridia had to repeat her question before I realized she had spoken.

"Would you prefer to lounge naturally, or with a suit?" She asked kindly. I reacted before I thought about it.

"I do not have a suit." She took it as the comment it was, even without inflection, instead of the cheek I am sure it sounded like.

"I can provide you with one, if it will allow you comfort." I wished I could feel what she was feeling, just as a gauge of etiquette, but my ability was still gone. I thought about it for a minute. I had been cured of body shyness by the ordeals I had faced in my years as a prisoner/toy to the Perish Guard, so nudity, wither my own or others, was no more shocking or offensive to me then clothing.

"Host's choice." I replied. She smiled, tested the nearly full tub.

"You may place your clothing over there, and bring a robe and lay it on one of the couches, if you wish to have one close. All of the adults come and go as they please here." I moved over to where she indicated, and found selves loaded with fluffy towels, and several coat hooks holding thick white robes of equal fluffosity. True, it isn't a word, but it was appropriate. I removed my top and bottom, and slung a robe over my arm as I moved to where the couches lay. It had never once occurred to me that she had not asked me to join her in the tub, or even asked if I would like to stay. She just set things up, and there was no question in anybody's mind that anything other than that would happen. I placed the robe on a couch, and as they were located near the shallow lounging end of the pool, I simply waited. She turned off the water and activated the heating unit to keep it at a constant temperature before she turned back to me.

Her face darkened, and her eyes filled with a sadness that just seeing makes your heart hurt. It took me a moment to realize what had made her features cloud. I caught it as her eyes ran up and then back down the length of my pale skin. I do not exhibit my body, because while not as bad as the scarring on Catherine's left side, my body does bear many scars from the years of imprisonment, aside from the question mark shaped one that runs from my navel to the hollow of my shoulder blades. All over my torso, there a small blade scars, scratches, friction burns, the marks of old beating bruises, and even several burns from lit cigarettes, almost as if they had tried to match the extent of their physical tortures with that of the willing, and un unknowable ones they heap upon my mind. How much worse the abuses are for those that can also feel the feelings coursing through the one delivering them, I cannot say, only because I do not know what it is like without that element. I can only assume the rape is worse when it is not simply limited to physical.

I stood straight, not ashamed, but I need not have thought that a being such as Merida Sanchez could feel anything resembling the contemptuous pity that is the maximum most people can muster when confronted with something like my scars. She simply moaned a few words.

"Oh, my. You poor child." She moved forward before I could move, and embraced me in a hug that spoke to me in a way I had never felt before. He touch seemed to burn my skin and sooth it at the same time. I have to assume this is what is known as motherly, as my I have no recollection of my parents, either because I was never with them, or the tortures had destroyed that portion of my mind. Without drawing away, she managed to remove her own robe, and walk me into the water, where we sat and she held me firmly. I blinked, and my vision blurred, and I realized I was crying gently. I had felt something. The first true feeling I had felt since I entered this house in the middle of a wild land. Fear. Fear that if this woman let go, I would have been consumed in sorrow so deep it would have snuffed me out completely.

"Tell me how this happened to you." She said. It was odd, but her touch seemed to unlock the deep black pits of sorrow and hate that had been locked away during my long confinement. But, at the same time, it seemed to be giving me the strength to face these things. As I looked into my own black memory, I recognized the black feeling I had felt from Richard when he beat Catherine, and understood why I had reacted so strongly.

I told her. I told her everything. The beatings. The torture. The rape. The evil feelings of the men as they did it. When they tried to have me read the minds of the men, women, and children they brought in for questioning. Then making me watch as they beat them to death. The horrible pain my mind suffered as they were snuffed out. All of it. Several times I was bawling so hard I could not even speak. The tears burned tracts down my cheeks, but I kept taking. She just kept whispering little noises and words of encouragement in my ear the whole time, never interrupting, never doing anything else. But with every word, it was as if she was leeching a terrible poison out of me, one that I had not even known was there. Finally, I had finished, gotten to where Richard had found me, dirty, starved, and terrified in Cherrygrove. I went quiet, literally shivering. She never let go. After a long while, she kissed me gently on the forehead, and whispered in my ear.

"You are going to be fine." And I knew it was true. I sat up, and wiped my eyes on a towel. They burned. I sat back, starteled. Then jumped slightly. This continued as I felt myself mentally in wonderment. Another shock. Finally I got a grasp on myself. It was overwhelming.

"What… What is this?" I said out loud, and jumped as someone answered. I had forgotten that Meridia was there.

"You are beginning to heal." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. She smiled her calming smile, and I felt better. Then my tired mind grasped it. I was _feeling_! Actually feeling. I had never noticed I had not been feeling until this moment. I could feel my own feelings. Up until this point, it was like living your entire life with gloves on, and then taking them off after twenty years and touching things. They felt!

"Richard told us that you were and Empath, and then explained what that was to us. He guessed at what it was that had happened to you, though not the extent. He asked for my help. We had Gardevoir block out your ability to sense those around you. Your trauma was worse than I could have ever imagined. We watched as you got increasingly detached throughout the dinner. I think, as a protection, you have only been able to feel others emotion for years now. Your own emotions were as closed off to you as others are to the rest of us. We supposed that that was the reason your voice and face carried no emotion, because you could not actually feel anything." I had tears in my eyes again, and a surge of gratitude, happiness, and so much other stuff I cannot even describe it.

"Th-Thank you. Thank you so much." My voice broke, and even that filled me with joy. Meridia smiled down on me. "I am going to have Gardevoir continue to suppress the outside emotion while you are staying her with us, give you a chance to learn you own emotions before being subjected to the rest. Everyone of the rest of the adults is aware of what we have done, and will be as helpful as possible to aid your recovery while you are under our roof. If you do not oppose, a few wish to join us, would that be okay?" I was so overcome I could not reply outside a small nod and wide, possible manic smile.

(…)

I had just enough time to wash my face off before the four adult women entered the bathroom, and managed to fall into a relaxed looking position despite my eagerness to… well… FEEL things. They all shucked their clothing, stowed it, and then pulled robes before entering the water. As they all settled into comfortable positions, Bright Eyes looked at me quizitivly.

"How did it go, Snow?" I felt a rush of gratefulness that she asked me instead of Meridia, and gloried in the feel of it.

"Excellent, Miss Voi." He look was warm, but it touched seriousness.

"Tut Tut, child. I will have none of that Miss Bullshit while we are in here. For now I am either Bright Eyes or some form of Elizabeth. We're all friends here, right ladies?" They all nodded, even Violetta, and I reasoned that they all preferred it the same way. I was able to comply, to, except in the case of Meridia. She simply did not feel like a Meri to me.

For quite a while we just all talked. I found now that I could feel, I had an interest in almost everything that was going on, and even put forward my own opinion at times. It was nice not only being able to socialize with these people, but to be treated as an equal by them, even though at the bottom end of the spectrum, they were still more than twenty years my senior.

Bright Eyes was bemoaning the fact that the Bidoof population seemed to be on the rise again, and her little personal garden was again being savaged by the annoying little things, when the door opened again, and a slim waisted, fairly chesty blonde with her hair hanging to the small of her back entered. She did not interrupt, but stripped and entered the water, settling next to Rose directly across from me. She turned her head to listen. She was pretty in a rough manner, and had a good number of freckles all across her face, but there was no doubt that she was a natural blond. Bright electric blue eyes met mine briefly, before turning back to Listening. Her mouth was drawn slightly tight as she waited.

To my great surprise, a tiny little pink head poked out from around the back of her neck, pushing back some to the hair as it fixed its own eyes with mine. They were impossibly round and a bright, glittering sky blue that seemed to express its curiosity to no limit. They eyes alone took up roughly 60% of its vaguely feline face, and it stood no taller that the top of her ear if it was standing on her shoulder.

It was, without a doubt, the cutest damn thing I have ever seen. I have no Idea what type of Pokémon it was, and I was not able to look any longer as it buried itself back in the girls long hair. Bright Eyes had just finished and the girl took that as the time to interject her displeasure.

"Hey, guys, why didn't anyone tell me Dickie was back in town?" Her voice was scornful. Rose sighed.

"Because, dear, we didn't know what day the he would be arriving, and you were already gone when they entered the Safari Zone." She seemed dissatisfied.

"Alright, I'll buy it. Then who is this dame?" I decided to hit her back, just because the feeling of ire in me was so new and I wanted to see if I could elevate it into full anger.

"This dame is Snow." I said, trying for ice but I am fairly sure I failed. She cocked an eyebrow, whether it was because she disliked my tone, didn't know who I was, or because what I said made very little sense when uttered verbally. Rose spoke to her.

"Em, she's one of the party that came with Richard. She's the Leader of the Johto Rangers and his second in command." She looked startled and a wee tad embarrassed.

"Oh, shit, and here I am being a complete twat. Sorry, Snow." She held out her hand and I shook it. It was slender yet had a roughness that said that she was not lazy. "Emily Stevens, Dickie's sister through Yorm and Rose. They were nice enough to explain this to me without me having to ask.

Their family, while not formally married, was still strictly regimented. Generation one, the eldest, consisted first of James, who I had not met, as he was off on some business (I would find out that this had been the case for the past 20 years,) Bright Eyes, and Rose. Afterwards, Jormungand, Meridia, and Violetta were allowed in. Now, Richard and Emily, along with anyone they brought in, would all be considered second generation, adopting the family name. So even though there was no blood relation, they were still considered brother and sister in name. Bright Eyes and Rose had taken it, no that Emily had joined us, to rehash the entire story of the founding of the family, and how they maneuvered around.

"So, when I ended up knocked up with Richard, and believe me, I would have managed it about three days in if his father wasn't such a stiff backed stubborn Jackass, he would allow me to do whatever I wanted with him, but he would not let me paste his name on him. See, when I first met him, I was just a wide eyed and innocent girl of 19 who was in over her head trying to keep it attached to her soldier. I am lucky that James was the first person I encountered, because now that I am able to understand what was going on in that time, even I would not have taken a chance on me, and just slit my throat and dumped me in a ditch." She paused as and took a sip of the drink in her hand, staring at the thick loam of bubbles that had been added to the bath in pleasant memory.

"Anyway, about a year after Richard was born, James got some hair up his ass about something, said it was important, and poof, disappeared. He told us later, and yes, it is important, but I still got him. Not 4 hours after he left, I worked up some paperwork, and boom, now we all have his name." She had a smile of deep relish.

When conversations first started, I got the mistaken impression that they were not all too fond of each other. I learned shortly that I could not have been more wrong. They all loved each other to the point where no offence could be taken between them, and if anything, the insults were a mark of affection rather than dejection. I felt a bitter pang of jealousy, never having known my family. Bright Eyes cut off my thoughts, continuing her story.

"So, my full legal name is "Elizabeth Voi – Stone.'" She actually said the word hyphen in between the words. "Every single one of us, from Vee to Yorm, Richard to Em, is a "-Stone." She sank down a little on her perch. A while back Rose had gotten up and fixed a try of drinks, and we had all partaken heartily. Now she sat back up straight, and focused on me. It got quite and al the others looked to me as well. I got nervous. The change from happy to serious I could feel even with my abilities jammed. She looked me straight in the eyes.

"I wanted to get you at ease before we touched upon this with you dear, just to make sure you were doing ok. Are you still feeling ok?" I replied truthfully after I saw Meridia give me a small smile.

"I am a little nervous now, but I think I am doing alright." She nodded, and her eyes flashed.

"We all want to thank you, sincerely for saving our son's life." I know it's a bit of a cliché, but my jaw actually dropped.

"I… he…uh… I am afraid, I'm afraid you have it backwards. He saved me from the facility in Cherrygorve." She was shaking her head before I finished speaking.

"Before he went out tonight, he came to us and told us in greater detail the events that had transpired while over in Johto. More specifically, he came to us, seeking punishment for the actions he took against Miss Chambers. Did you notice anything strange about his reaction after the event?"

"Wait, what happened?" Emily asked, extremely curious and obviously left out of the loop.

"After Miss Chambers, the other girl that traveled here with him and apparently his girlfriend, tried to join them in resistance as a double agent against the Perish Guard, he vented his frustration upon her." Her eyes shot wide as the inference sunk in.

"It was not the venting of frustration." I said, and it was obvious all but Emily knew the full extent of what he had done. "I was standing there with him, and I could feel his every emotion almost as strongly as I feel my own now." This sentence confused Emily greatly, but she did not interrupt, wanting to know the story. The others attentions sharpened at the opertunity to get a reliable second hand account.

"We was in cold fury. It was awful. It wasn't like a blind rage where you lose control. It was like a his logical mind took over and steered him to do the most damage possible, but while still not doing any permanent damage." I shivered slightly in memory of the severe emotion. "at the end, he actually pulled a knife and was going to kill her, but Europa moved in and stopped him by almost ripping his arm off." This still met with no surprise from all but Emily. Apparently Richard did not try and lessen what he did when telling them.

"Afterwards, he retreated to his office and threw up. A lot. Then had me reset his arm into it's socket, and tried to sign over command of our outpost to me. The entire time he was doing so, he had this feeling consuming him, that I do not know what it was, but I call it simply black, and can relate it to my own while I was a prisoner, only it was more severe than mine." Bright Eyes spoke, her voice dark, and the entire feel of the room was somber.

"But you stayed with him, and kept him working. You saved him by that. You see, Snow, that black feeling, at least in part, was Suicide." The room was quite and I simply gaped at her, not able to thick of anything else. Richard, kill himself? I could even imagine it. "What he did to that girl was so against his own morals, so personally heinous, that he could not bare the thought of allowing someone like himself to pollute our world."

"What… why?" I was so shocked I don't even have words for it. She looked up and gave a grim smile. "He never said this, but I know my baby, better than he knows I do." Emily was making a horrified choking noise. I remembered a horrible thing, and voiced it, reticently.

"… when… when he was beating her I… I saw something. A few images that were not my memories." All of the adults were suddenly alert, and the water sloshed from them all leaning forward.

"What was it?" Violetta asked, breathless in suspense.

"First was what looked like a man, but he had shadows where his eyes should have been. The next was a man, bloody and hurt, lying on the ground. And finally,… *ahem*" My voice broke, and I felt a hot tear slide down my cheek. Reliving this now that I could really feel the gravity and horror of the images was harder than I ever would have imagined. But I noticed that Bright Eyes and Meridia were freely crying now, and even Violetta seemed to be blinking away tears. "It was a girl, her skull caved in… and her body a mass of bruised and bloody skin." Eveyone was quite, save a few sniffles from those of us who were crying. Violetta spoke, her voice as cold as steel.

"Those pictures were Richards." I was hesitant, I wanted to know what they were, but I knew I would not like what it was. Violetta told the tale.

"It's a shameful story for all of us Rangers, what happened then. I have to ask you though, because Richard des not know that we know this was him, so please, both of you, do not tell him that we do." Emily and I both nodded.

"He was fourteen, and in basic. He had made friends with another, a girl. Not real pretty, but he and her were fast friends. Well, we let them on leave, and she went home for the two weeks they had off. She comes back, black eye, bruised, a few scrapes. Now, somehow, Richard found out that it was her dad beating her. So he did what any brash young kid with a heart to big for his own good and the raw skills to back it up would do. Hell, he did exactly what his fater would have done." A single tear fell from her eye, and she made no effort to hide it or brush it away.

"He went to her home town and beat the shit out of him. We had to run quite an investigation to piece it together here, but he put the man in the hospital in critical for over a week. But he didn't kill him, he let him have a second chance. Probably with an injunction that if he ever touched her again, he would not live to regret it. She had no idea about it, as far as we know."

"When the next break came around, she went home, but when we reconvened, she did not return." Bright Eyes had picked it up here. "After three days, I went out to find out why she hadn't returned. She could not return because she was dead. A post mortem was done. The bastard had beat her severely for a long time, she literally had bruised on top of bruised. I don't want to go into details, as even after all I have seen, this is what makes me sick to my stomach. When he finished torturing her, he smashed her head into an unrecognizable pulp. But, by the time I got there, her father was already gone. No, he didn't get away. The first day she failed to return, Richard was absent for dinner and breakfast the following day, and we did not see much of him that whole week. When we told him about her death, he just asked with a dead tone if we got the bastard that did it. We had not, but somebody had, although all of him was never recovered." She sniffled, and then set her jaw again. "I know my son, and he reasoned that what that monster did was retaliation for his own beating of the man. It could not have been, as a thing such as that would have done it eventually regardless. We have been much more careful watching our charges since, vowing to never miss the signs of this kind of thing again."

"When Richard beat the defenseless Casey, in his mind he became the same type of monster that he had seen. And he would have killed himself had you allowed him the opportunity." She shuddered, and then moved forward and wrapped me in a tight hug, and sobbed openly on my shoulder, and returned the gesture and cried hard myself.

(…)

I was kept away from the others of my group for the following three days. By day I was usually paired with Emily, and I had to admit, she was a fun person to be around. At night, I was sleeping in bed with Meridia, which I could not understand until the first night. The terrors came at night. Shadowy figures with minds filled with evil swirling around, not fading when I awoke screaming, crying. Hut Meridia was always there her strong loving arms there to keep me safe, her calm words to shut out the evil thoughts and noises. For three days she kept them at bay as they faded, and on the last night, they were barely anything. Just being around this family made the intensity less. I was told that I could rejoin Richard, but Emily told me I was going camping with her.

(…)

I was up a tall tree, my back against the trunk, eyes closed and hands behind my head. Emily and I were on a branch about a third of the way up one of the great redwoods, on a branch that was thicker than the both of us together. Emily was on her back, playing with her little Pokémon as it lay on her stomach. We had been out in the Safari zone, just surviving to stay sharp and for fun, since the day before, and were planning on returning for dinner the next night, the second to last night were would be in Kanto. We both were clad in our shoes, tight black shorts, and grey sports bras, with two knives clipped to out waists. A roar echoed out across the grasslands below and in front of me, and my eyes slowly opened. I recognized it, though her Pokémon, whom she called "Squishy" dindn't and chirruped in surprise. It hopped up and floated next to Em as we crawled along the branch and parted a small section of foliage and looked down at the compound in the distance.

Catherine and Vinn were sitting in chairs in the sun, watching as Richard was fighting with Europa. He would dash at her and she would jump backward, then he would turn and run until she overtook him and then he would lunge again. After about three rounds of this, he managed to catch her, locking his arms around her shoulder, and she fell to her back, legs kicking franticly until she threw him off. The she burrowed into the tall grass, still on her back, leaving Richard laughing on the ground. After a minute he rose, then settled on the same lounge that Catherine was on, and I returned to my perch. Emily's Pokémon settled on her shoulder with its overlarge hind legs, and stared fixedly at me with its giant eyes. She turned and looked down at me with one sandy eyebrow arched.

"What was that?" Asked, having caught the look on my face as I had turned away. I did not have a lot of practice suppressing the facial display of my emotions yet. I simply shrugged. She moved closer, her hands on her hips.

"Why, Miss Frost, are you _jealous_ of Miss Chambers?" I said nothing, but met her gaze. "Aw, sweetie, you don't have to worry about her. You know he loves you." I gave a knee jerk reation of a bitter little chuckle.

"Please, Em, don't treat me like I am stupid. I can read feelings, and He never once showed even the slightest interest in me." She sighed heavily and h\then sat down next to me, her Pokémon jumping down into her lap, and attempting to burrow under her hand.

"I only treat you like you're stupid when you insist on acting like it." She gave me a look that said I was not allowed to argue. She looked at me for a long time before speaking again. "Do I really need to spell it out for you?" I didn't answer, I just watched the trees greenery shiver in the light breeze.

"Okay, fine. He should be telling you this stuff, but he has actually solid reasons why he doesn't. Now, my brother, like his father, is a very prideful person. Not in all directions, but where he does exhibit his pride, it is really strong. When he first met you, you were cowering in a cell thinking he was there to torture and rape you. So, isn't it not just possible, but extremely likely that he would let you think that he was shunning you rather than let you even entertain the thought that he moght be taking advantage of you?" I could say nothing to this, as it made to much sense. SO I maintained my moody silence, and she sighed again.

"Ok, then. He's been dating Casey for a few months now, right?" I nodded slightly, still looking away. "So, when you are all together, who does he pay more attention to, you or her? Because I am willing to bet it's not her." She was again right. I thought back, just to when we had entered Fuchsia. The whole time he was pointing out things, he was talking to me, not Catherine or Vinn.

"That doesn't prove anything." I said quietly. Why is it that the more you want something to be true, the harder you fight to prove it isn't? She sighed again, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head.

"Ok, if this one doesn't convince you… You know Europa, right? Well, Europa was born from an egg from his father's Pokémon, Lilith, and Merida's Dragonite, Titan. It one of the reasons Europa is his most treasured possession, as she's all he got from his old man. Well, his Father, Meridia, and Violetta all went through Ranger training together and the Eevees they were awarded with are all sisters. After founding this shack out here, they continued the tradition. So Bright Eyes and mother both got one to. Bright Eyes's Umbreon is a male. So hers and his had an egg. Richard specifically asked his mother upon arrival for _you_ to receive that egg." I continued to stare off into space, wanting to believe, but not wanting to hope. She stared at me waiting for a reply, but I found that my throat was just a tad too tight to speak.

"Just… don't worry about it, dear. Merida was the one that told me, and Meridia is never wrong." I not quite sure why this was the item that tipped the balance, but after that, I had no more outstanding doubts about it. "Anyway, let's quit mopping about, I want to show you the Snow area before it gets too late."

(…)

After a night out in the bush, and another back in a real bed, I chose to have breakfast down in the mess hall, as that is where everyone tended to eat when it was not a night of family gathering. Because the whole lodge was essentially on vacation, save vital staff, the dress code was relaxed, and a majority of the people I encountered were wearing at most, their underpants. I stuck with tight boxers and a loose tank top, as I liked the effect it gave, and it was still far more conservative than some I saw. There was one man eating, whose total garment had less surface area than one side of my napkin. Honestly, I stopped noticing any of it in about five minutes.

After I was about half way through my food, Richard entered, grabbed a bwl of hot cereal, and flopped down across from me, scratching himself the entire time.

"Morn…ahhhsnow." He said around a yawn, before staring at his spoon until the mechanics of it's operation returned to him. I merely grunted. Catherine had just seated herself next to him, a black bra and panties the limit of her wardrobe. I noticed that the imesity of her scarring did not detract from her beauty. "Having a good time?"

"No thanks to you." I did not quite snap at him. I regretted it. I had no worries, but the disease of jealousy is a had one to shake once it takes hold. And is even harder to ombat in the presence of most of Catherine's skin. Seriously, how does anyone look that good when the have just rolled out of bed? Richard stared at me like he was trying to figure out something, and Catherine looked mildly surprised. "Sorry." I added meekly. His face did not change.

"No, I get it. I sorry I sicked my mothers on you straight away. It can be a bit overwhelming for the best of us." Catherine made a face that said she agreed. I was shocked.

"What? No, they have been absolutely wonderful." His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he were scrutinizing me closely.

"You know… there is something… different about you this morning." I could not help it. I smiled widely. Catherine was paying no attention, but quietly eating her meal. Richard grunted before I could say anything.

"Hmm. Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you smile?" I can only imagine how my face looked for my shock. "You should do it more often. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I must attend to the second highest calling." He left abrubtly. I ate in silence, and started when Catherine spoke to me.

"Are you finished?" I eyed my food.

"Yes."

"Take a walk with me." She got up and walked away, depositing her dishes. I don't know why, but I followed. She led me out behind the house, where she leaned agasst the wood, one foot on the wall. She stared out across the plain, and I wondered why she wanted me out here, half naked. Not that I was unarmed. I never went unarmed.

"Listen," she began hesitantly, "I know you don't like me, and that I have no reason to believe that will change. But I think we should, if nothing else, pretend to get along for Richard's sake." I cocked an eyebrow and tilted my head slightly. She looked nervous. "See, I know that Richard… well… that he…er… loves…you, even though he is… for the moment… with me." I did not have to be able to read her to know how awkward this was, as I was even a little embaressed by the subject.

"You do not have to worry about me, Catherine. I will not interfere." She looked apologetic, and even more akward.

"NO!" She said quickly. "No, I am not asking for you to do anything. I'm not suggesting that you would. Not that I am afraid you would try and take him… I mean, that you could…Shit, No I didn't mean like that…" I cut her off.

"I know What you mean. You have nothing t worry about. He really likes you." She gave a weak smile.

"I guess I know. And it scares me a little." I was perplesed.

"Why, do you think he might…" She cut me off as if she could read my mind.

"No. No, I don't worry about that. Those little marks you let him give himself, those were nothing compared to what his Mother did to him over. I don't think I will ever be able to fear him like that again."

"Yeah, it almost killed him." She looked away sadly.

"I know. Violetta came after me about it. She doesn't say too much, but she does it very… intimidating-ly." I nodded at this. It was hard to believe her and Merida could be related, much less Sisters, sometimes. "But he has been happy as a Shellder ever since, like he can finally start to forgive himself. But what scares me is just how… intensely, I guess you could say, he feels for things. I mean, we've been straight dating for three months now, and he has not even once tried to get me to have sex with him." I cocked my eyebrow again, finding this hard to believe. "No, really. I even asked him once or twice. He just said "no, not right now." And changed the subject." She looked at me with wide eyes.

"But that's not what really did it. The other day, we were hanging out back here, just lounging in the sun while Richard was playing with his dragon." I had to stop myself from saying that I had seen that. "and after she got bored… yeah, she got bored before he did, he came and joined me. Then…he got to talking about when he would have a little girl of his own!

"Oh, my." Was all I could say. "Well, growing up in an environment like this, it's not really surprising that he would not view it as a bad thing…"

"I know, but what scared me, is that as he described it, I could actually picture it. I could see a little girl with dark brown hair, and bright, friendly green eyes undimmed by sorrow." She shivered.

"Anyway, sorry, We are both going to be working close from here on out, and I think it would be easier for him if we got along…What do you think." I realized we had just had a full blown moment, and shrugged.

"I guess we could try." She smiled a little.

"Ok, cool, thanks Snow. So, I am going to a concert tonight, and was wondering if you would be interested."

"Who's playing?" I asked suspiciously. I don't like things that change this quickly. She looked disinterested.

"Oh, just some bands from around. Mayday Parade, Go Radio, We Are the In Crowd, and Every Avenue." She looked out her nails. I let out a long slow breath that changed into words.

"…fuck me. What the hell is the name of the tour? The "Fucking to awesome to be real tour?" She looked surprised.

"When did you start swearing?"

"Hmm, I guess since I have enough emotion to feel how they are supposed to work. Richard put you up to this?"

"No. Odds are he will invite you himself later. But I am serious, I want to try and be friendly." I thought for a minute. With a lineup like that, I was not going to miss it. I thought I could put up with her for the bands that were playing.

"Ok, I will go with you…Casey."

**End 14**

**(Damn, 33 pages, sorry!)**


End file.
